temp guage is possessed

[zaven]

My temperature guage in the dash is nuts. It jumps around randomly, and sometimes just pegs to the max. Sometimes it seems to move as a function of the engine revs, but its totally wacky. My coolant level is fine, I've had the thermostat replaced. It seems to be an electrical problem, like the guage is shorting out or something. The dealer wants to take the whole dash apart to fix it for several hundred dollars. Has anyone dealt with this before? Where could I look to check grounds or the wiring for the guage without taking the whole damn car apart? thanks much.

 

[luv2rallye]

The thermostat has nothing to do with the temp gauge. Your problem could be the gauge itself but it sounds more likely a bad engine coolant temp gauge unit (sender), or a bad connection to it, or the wire to it is intermittently shorting to ground. Pull the connector off the sender (larger black circular connector on thermostat housing) and short it to ground. The temp gauge should pin to hot and stay there. If it does, the sender is bad or it's connection is bad. If not, the wiring or the gauge itself is bad.