Smooshed something electronic on a bumpy road
 

Hi, Does anyone know what the little black electrical thing on the forward surface of the forwardmost cross member of the frame is? The Check Engine light now stays on since I smooshed it on a terrible road.

I figure it is an "ambient temperature sensor", or maybe "ambient thermometer" Does that sound right or does anyone know exactly? I need to order a new one and want to be sure I know what it is.

You should post a picture or video. The temp sensor looks like this:

http://cdn2.autopartsnetwork.com/ima...1622567OES.JPG

Is it that thing (up arrow) that fits here ??

Unfortunately I posted the first message on behalf of my husband who is driving out of the country and I not only cannot post a picture, but can't look at it myself!
He asked me to try and find this part for him with no more explanation than what is above. I am hoping the number of things it could be are limited enough that I can deduce what it is or at least email him pictures of the few things it could be and get a confirmation from him.
I'm surprised there would be pieces like that low enough to be damaged on a bad road. Are there a lot of possibilities of what it could be?
Thanks for any ideas!

These cars ride high compared to most. So I doubt any bad road could have hit anything unless it is not a road he was driving on, more like a trail. It is possible that he hit something that was lying on the road. I have done that before.

Well , , , this sensor is about the only thing I can think that's down there. In the picture you see a horn but that's my car and I relocated the horns down there to get them out of the way of the radiator. The ambient temp sensor (outside air temp) needs to be someplace it's getting air and reading temperature that isn't affected by the engine or radiator's heat. It's mounted above the lowest part of the front bumper valence. It's mounted behind it and slightly in front of the AC condenser so it's in a protected area that no engineer thought someone could drive in such a way as to "smoosh". To hit a bump or pot hole hard enough to get to this sensor you'd pretty much have to have smashed the frame all the way to the ground and damaged the condenser and radiator. Not to mention scraped the hell out of or broken that front valance panel.

Because of the way it's shaped he may think it's broken or snooshed due to the short part of it that sticks through the mounting bracket when in fact that's the way the part is :D That would be good news.

Here in Minnesota there is the danger that someone who is lazy and doesn't shovel their driveway might try to push their car through a mound of snow at the end of the driveway from the snowplows. Now that can cause some damage if that one or two foot mound isn't powdered snow but slush and ice.

Best thing to do is to find out if his car is leaking coolant and if he can get an accurate outside temperature reading from the trip information panel in the center of the instrument panel. If it's not leaking he's good till he gets back and can read this thread and see if that's the part. If he can't get an accurate reading then it's likely this is what he's looking at and it might be damaged.

AND , thank you for taking the time to actually post the problem in the title. A lot of newer people post "need help" or "having a problem" which is really lame and doesn't really help the poster get the attention they need.

Sounds like the accelerometer to me. That would certainly turn on the check engine light. Its purpose is to tell the engine computer that it hit a bump. when that happens, if spark knock is detected, the computer ignores that, and assumes the spark knock was actually the bump. Very strange. I don't suppose any non-volvos have a thing like that, at least I never heard of it.

Look like this?
Volvo Acceleration Sensor (850 C70 S70 V70) - Bosch 0273101021 | FCP Euro

The only thing that hangs low to the ground (and I might be wrong) is the O2 wire.

We are all just shooting in the dark here. We need you to get a picture of this "thingie" you are talking about.

Found another picture on this forum:
https://volvoforums.com/forum/attach...3630_sense-jpg

If I was a rock, that's what I'd break....

I haven't seen this under there so I'm going to have to take a closer look when it's not raining.

Acceleration sensor $304 :eek: Hope it's not this.

http://www.justanswer.com/uploads/su...elerometer.gif

Sorry, didn't see the second page post with the link :o , opps.

Thanks for the help guys, I am going to turn this thread over to my husband now that he is back. After the awful road he had to repair the oil pan which got a hole in it and in the process the mechanic did something as a temporary fix to the smooshed part. Here is a photo of it.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-v...0/DSCN3661.JPG

OUCH, it's the $304 dollar part.

Now I really want to find that part and move it !!

Ouch! That looks like a $7 part at the junk yard. LOL

This is the husband, returned from having driven a Mexican road I was told would be good but which was from a little south of hell. The sensor itself didn't get smashed. The connector to it did. A mechanic jabbed the squished terminals back in the holes and taped it up. Perhaps the connection is bad because I often still get a Check Engine light. Or maybe the cause of that lies elsewhere. We should see if we can get an indication from the OBD. We have the primitive ELM OBD reader, which requires a lot of know-how. Maybe my wife will figure it out!;)
Steve

Dear Steve, if you're back in the states you or the wife can always swing into an Autozone, Oreillys ..... and have them do it for you for FREE !!

It's a service and their scanners are usually pretty fast and efficient.