Ok so heres the deal . I just traded an old pos quad for a 96 taurus that is in pretty good shape, but when i got it ,the check engine light was on. Ran fine but did idle a lil high. Took it to autozone and had them scan it. It came up IAT sensor bad , so we looked and it was unhooked. Pluged it back in , reset the code and all was good. Drove it probably around 300 miles ,never had an issue and the CE light never came back on. Then went to start it and it wouldnt fire at all. So i unplugged the IAT sensor and it started right up , but again reving a lil high again. My question is why will it run with out it and the CE light on but not with it and no CE light. I know i can go buy another sensor but it never tripped a code while it was hooked up. I was thinking maybe there is a bare spot on a wire causing a short or something, when it was working . I dont know it just doesnt make sense to me. I have never had a sensor shut down a car to where it wont even attempt to start before.
Any ideas? just buy a new sensor , leave it unplugged, or ?


Thanks for any help

Nate