I havent got a shop manual for a DMC yet or have the temp sensor infont of me but usually engine temp sensors have 2 wires. They are usually located in the radiator on the side passages. But then again this is a somewhat foreign design. The way you read the average american car temp sensor is with a Ohm meter, not a volt meter. The average reading with the car cold should be somewhere around 3-5 ohms. The resistance changes with the temperager. If you start the car and let it warm up and the resistance does not increase you could have a faulty temp sensor. I'm not sure about 81-83 cars but without that reading that might be telling the car that the engine is not warming up and it will dump more fuel in (to richen the mixture). When it does that for a long period of time it can destroy your catalatic converter... However reading that your temp gauge died so fast I wouldnt think that it wasnt your engine temp sensor itself but rather your guage. You could of had a rodent in there that nawed on some wires or you lost a connection somewhere. If you got a wiring diagram use a meter to check all your connections for your eng temp sen. I hope some of that helped, Sean --- In dmcnews@xxxx, "K Creason" <dmc4687@xxxx> wrote: > My temp gauge suddenly died this afternoon. It points straight down and > doesn't quiver.