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Wish I could help, but if you find a solution please post it.
I've had the same problem that you describe, except for the P00116 code, which I don't think the T5 1999 9-3 throws. Never had this problem living in Florida (even on the cold mornings), but as soon as I moved to Illinois it has become an annual occurrence. Once the temperatures start to dip the coolant gauge starts acting up. It warms up normally, but once the thermostat opens it drops out. On occasion it will creep back into range and back to normal, but it can drop out at any time. Restarting the car sometimes helps, but not always.
I picked up an OBDII reader, which I can setup to show the engine coolant temp (NTC sensor) so I have an idea of what the coolant is doing. The coolant warms up to about 90-94C then drops down to ~85C when the thermostat (89C unit) opens. On cool ambient temperatures I normally see 85-92C on the NTC sensor during my drive. On warmer days the NTC sensor runs about 95-103C and the gauge reads normal at 9 O’clock.
For some reason I'm really trying to figure out why I have this is a problem this year. I've tapped into the wire harness behind the glove box that connects the dash gauge to the temperature sender unit. The dash sends out a 5V signal and the resistance from the temperature sender should force a 1.5V signal at 80 C and 1.0V at 100C per WIS. My gauge seems to follow this pattern. When the gauge drops to cold I get 4.97V across the wires, so zero resistance in the sender. When the car is running normal temps per the NTC and the gauge is running cold, but working, the voltage will be jumping around between 1.5 and 2V. If I cross the wires I get the ! light on the dash, so it's not a short.
This screams to me as a failed temperature sender, but I've noticed the behavior with 3-4 different temperature senders and countless thermostats as I seem to try and fix the problem every fall with a new thermostat and/or sender. I've tried 87, 89 and 92C thermostats, none have helped.
I've got a couple old sender units lying around that I'm going to test and throw in the car this weekend. Not expecting it to fix the problem, but at least I know I've tried (again). I have a hard time justifying purchasing a new sender unit after all these years.
Good luck and PLEASE let me know if you find a fix
1999 9-3
212k miles
posted by 159.245....
, Thu, 24 Oct 2013 09:42:55
, Tue, 22 Oct 2013 13:43:43, Tue, 22 Oct 2013 13:37:07, Sat, 9 Nov 2019 17:00:39
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