Coolant Temp Sensor

If a coolant temp sensor is reading the temperature of the coolant as being higher than actuall will that trick the computer into making wrong cammands. If so what would it effect? 1990 jeep Cherokee.

thanks in advance

First likely would be more difficult cold starting and poor running and stalling because of lack of cold start enrichment. Also cooling fans cut in early. Most cars of the last 25 years at start up will recognise a coolant sensor that is out of the expected range and assume a default coolant temperature of around 60 to 70 degrees.

Once warmed up there would be other effects on for example ignition timing and idle speed that would vary between manufacturers.

The 1990 jeep Cherokee coolant temp sensor is located in the side of the block. The 1991 jeep Cherokee Temp sensor location was change to the thermostat housing.

The coolant temp in the block is higher than what it would be at the thermostat housing. Therefore I don't know if there was a change to the ECM programming to reflect the difference in the temperatures due to the temp sensor location change.

Question:
I would like to change the location of my coolant temp sensor from the block to the thermostat housing. Does anyone think the temperature differential would be great enough to effect anything?

Thanks in advance

Normally when the thermostat is working properly the by-pass hose pipe work recirculates coolant back to the inlet eye of the pump when the thermostat is closed or partly open this goes a long way to ensuring an even temperature in both head and block.

Normal cold start enrichment is about 25% on injection engines and this shuts off as soon as the temperature starts to warm up . Once the engine has some intial heat fueling dosen't change much. In the over heat range some engine computers will increase idle rpm to avoid the fuel in the fuel rail over heating and boiling.