I've been having hot start problems typical of a bad fuel temp sensor. Yesterday, I disconnected it before starting it on a cold start. It started right up, telling me that it has no input on a cold engine. I left it disconnected, and haven't had any hot start problems since. Is it really needed? I've never known of fuel being too hot to start an engine on these. Thanks.

 

From the RAVE:

This is another resistive sensor. Located on the fuel
rail it measures temperature of the rail rather than the
fuel. The resistance varies with changes in
temperature. The signal is used to increase the
injection pulse time when undergoing hot restarts.
When the fuel is hot, vapourisation occurs in the rail
and bubbles can occur in the injectors. Increasing the
pulse time flushes the bubbles away, and cools the
fuel rail with fuel from the tank. The fault may not be
evident to the driver, there may be a hot restart
problem. The fault is indicated by illumination of the
malfunction indicator light (MIL) on North American
specification vehicles.

So IMHO you would notice things if trying to restart in hot conditions and need vapor lock bubbles flushed, but it has no function at cold start. The coolant sensor jumps in there and the ECU makes richer mixture (as in land of the frozen fingers).

 

All correct, but how bad would a few bubbles be? If it just makes it stutter for a few seconds before getting fresh fuel, then fine. When the sensor is bad (like mine seems to be), the truck will not start at all when hot. It turns over repeatedly without getting any fuel. After it cools back off (and the sensor no longer gives a resistance output) it fires up and runs normally. So, with it disconnected, I think I may be bypassing the much more annoying problem of not hot starting over a probable bubble stutter for a few seconds. Of course replacing it is the real fix, but if you're in a pinch or stranded because of it, then disconnecting it may put you back on the road without having to wait for it to cool down/tow it.