So I bought the car and have been slowly doing required maintenance , and repairs .  
 

When I started the car again after I quick drive I noticed the temp gage drop from around 70 (pre warm ) to then I got the red flashing coolant symbol show up .

i looked under the bonnet to check coolent levels and it was above the minimum had a look around and noticed a lead just below the coolent bottle that had been taped up and looks like someone has done a bypass.

I removed the bypass and restarted the car still showed the warning so whilst car was running I put the bypass wire back in turned the car of and back on and the symbol went away and my temp gage is now working .

my car is a 3.0 petrol when I look online at the photos of coolent sensor the pins look to close in the pics so I’m not sure if there just a generic photo or the bypass is not in the actual coolant sensor location and this is something else? 
 

please see the pics and any recommendations 

Hello James,

Warning for low coolant level rather than coolant temperature?? 
If so, what you have found is most likely the culprit, but that is a coolant level sensor and not a coolant temperature sensor. 
Kind regards,

Gareth. 

Thanks for letting me know , iv noticed before that sometimes the coolant is below the minimum, and never got any notification so i assume that this bypass was preventing that ?

 

still don’t under stand how a sensor located completely separated from coolant tank can tell the coolant levels 🤷‍♂️ 

 

It’s always worrying when you find bypass on sensors on a used car as you never know if it was a quick fix or there to hide something. 
 

is this a common bypass ? 

Just buy a new level sensor James.