*SOLVED*Temp Gauge Problem

abnormalabnormal New Wagonist
in Electronics, Fueling & Air Conditioning
A while back my temp gauge kept quickly shooting up to Hot and then back to its normal position. It would do this roughly every 5 minutes. I replaced the sending unit and this didn't help. I also checked the resistance of the wire from the sending unit to the gauge and made sure there weren't any cuts in the harness. I got a new gauge which seemed to fix it; I haven't had a problem in about a year.

The other day it shoot up to Hot again and went back in about 2 seconds. I noticed back before I replaced the gauge it would mess up more after I have driven the car for a while, which how it happened this time. The circuit is very simple, so the only thing that can cause this is a short to ground somewhere along the sending unit wire. I'm guessing inside the harness (probably in the engine bay) this wire's insulation has been rubbed off making it intermittently short. So far it has only done it once, but I'm curious if anyone else has had similar problems with their temp gauge.

Comments

  • ogwagonogwagon Wagonist
    I had a similar problem except my temp gauge would intermittently rise as the rpm gauge would rise. Replaced the temp gauge from another cluster and fixed the problem.
  • abnormalabnormal New Wagonist
    My temp gauge seems to randomly have fits; no correlation to RPMs. Although I did have problems with my RPM gauge shooting up, but that was a bad igniter.

    It seems weird that replacing the gauge fixed my jumping needle earlier, so I'm wondering if the gauge is going bad again :evil: . It seems if the wiring was to blame replacing the gauge wouldn't solve anything. If two gauges are exhibiting the same jumping behavior, I would guess other people would have had the same problem? I don't know:
      Bad wiring or... Bad gauge
  • bam-bambam-bam Council Member
    The only time I had this symptom a new sensor fixed it. I know you've already changed it. Those wires also are prone to deterioration from the hot engine oil leaking from the distributor o-ring, but you've already checked that, too.

    I have several spares of all that stuff. I guess you're down at school, but you're welcome to come by the house and swap parts to your heart's content when you come home...or I'll try to send you what you need, just let me know.
  • abnormalabnormal New Wagonist
    It's just one of those minor annoyances which is rather distracting when your temp gauge decides to max out. Maybe, over Spring Break (mid-March) I'll be able to look at it. I'm thinking about possibly getting a rear sway bar and control arms or doing a MPFI conversion. If I do the latter the wiring harness needs to be opened, so I could check the temp gauge wire more closely. On the MPFI swap, I wasn't sure how annoying it would be to do, since it is an automatic.
    bam-bam wrote:
    I have several spares of all that stuff. I guess you're down at school, but you're welcome to come by the house and swap parts to your heart's content when you come home...or I'll try to send you what you need, just let me know.

    Thanks for the part offer, but I'll probably just keep an eye on it for now. At least its only done it once so far. Yeah, I'm down at school, so working on it in the dorm parking probably isn't the best idea. Although, I've had to before, but that was to get it running again. I'll let you know if I end up needing some part.
  • abnormalabnormal New Wagonist
    See this post for the solution.
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