Since I just got my '88 I have been looking at pix of irocs on yahoo and google, just couldnt help. I saw 2 other cars on there with the same deal my car has and was just wondering what causes it. The water temp needle is like pegged hot and is stuck there. Is this from a previous owner just getting it that hot and killing the gauge or is there another reason for it? It just seems as if they got the car hot that the needle would come back down. Is there any fix when this happens or am I looking for a new instrument panel? It looks like you could just pull the needle off and put it back at zero but im sure the calibrations are all off. I dunno.. any ideas?

 

Could be the senderis bad. The signal wire grounding some where or the gauge bad. Disconnect the wire from the sender and check it for continuity to ground. If there is none or a very, very small amount then check the resitance to ground on the sender at cold. Should have a high resitance. Also while the sender is unplugged look at the gauge and see if it goes down when the key is on.

 

if i remember correctly, somthing easy to check is to take the gauge out and check the back of it. there should be 3-4 copper strip looking things behind it. they are basically what controls the needle. check to see if any look crispy or if anything is melted around them. i have a 72 chevelle that the gas gauge wouldnt read above 1/4 a tank. when it was full it read 1/4. when it got below 1/4 it read normally. i took the gauge out and cleaned it up a little. must have cleaned the contacts or somthing cause it worked after that. i also had a friend do the same thing to his temp gauge. he described to me what i remembered seeing behind the gauge on the chevelle and just brushed the needles back there off and it started registering again.

 

Is the temp sender under the intake up by the throttle body? There are 2 sensors up there, they seem to be in the right spot for one of them to be the water. Taking the cluster out and checking the terminals is a good idea also, maybe this weekend I will pull it out and see what happens. It is the last weekend of rifle up here but I already got my 2 deer so I will be bored. Thanks for the ideas!

 

The sensor on the intake should be for the computer. It will have a yellow wire and if it has two a black one also. The sender for the gauge is in the left head between exhaust ports and will have a green wire.

 

I just went out and messed around with it. I took the instrument panel cover off and flicked the needle back down. It was jammed under the trim around the gauge. I started it after that and i see why it does it. When you first start cranking the needle goes crazy (bounces up and down) and I can see how there is a chance of it getting stuck up when it does this. No big deal, just gota take it apart if it does it again. If you ever see this, theres ur answer.

 

That jumping to hot, and the other gauges jumping, is normal.