951sickness

Hello All, I have an 88 951 which has developed an annoying habit of pegging the temp gauge. The car is not overheating as it happens when the car is ice cold as well. As soonn as I turn on the ignition temp gauge hits the top. It hits so hard you can hear the click. One way to get the needle to return to it's proper position is to smack the cluster right near the gauge. I'm about to pull the cluster out and check loose connections. Would a loose connection cause the needle to go all the way hot? At this piont I think the fault is with the gauge or connections as if it were the sender, I could smack the dash "till the cows come home" and it would not correct itself. Just wondering if I should be looking for a new gauge. Thanks in advance.

K2NE

I have an almost identical problem with the fuel gauge on my '83 944.

Not fixed yet (as I consider it only a minor annoyance - I use the trip odometer to tell me when to fill 'er up). Smacking the dash, while crude, rude and ignorant (especially to a P-car!) does the trick most of the time, and the gauge will then read properly.

I *strongly* suspect a faulty connection behind the gauge cluster, which is why I've not yet done anything about it (a minor PITA to get to the connection - if it were a *major* job I'd probably be itching to dive into the thing and "tinker"!).

--Vince

Perry 951

99% of the time this happens, the sender is bad. $38 will get you a new one. Not sure of the price on the fuel sender.

Dano_944

Electrical ground is probably bad. Check the dash ground.... where-ever it might be on your model. My ground for the dash is starting to go. The temp gauge creeps up with every electrical device I turn on.... lights... up.... A/C... up....defrost..... up......radio....up.....foglamps.....up.

If I turn on all my electrical components, I'll gain 1/4 to 1/12 increase in temperature on the gauge. Funny stuff, but a little annoying.

K2NE

I strongly doubt that my problem (the fuel gauge "sleepies") is the sending system. I am absolutely convinced it is either a faulty dash ground, or a bad connection at the gauge itself.

--Vince

951sickness

Well, I'll check out the sender but I think it is a bad connection behind the cluster since it "fixes" itself when I smack the dash. I'll let you know what I find.

Danno

Also there are difference temperature senders available. On the 951, there are TWO senders, one for the dash-gauge and one for the DME. They operate in opposite directions. I don't recall and have to look up my notes (at home, I'm at the pub now). But one goes up in resistance as the temperature rises while the other goes down in resistance.

Perry 951

All I know is I have helped replace 4 of them, mine included, and they all were the culprit.

jdog

9 times out of ten if you have to smack the dash and it comes to normal position it is a bad connection or bad ground on the dash.I had the same problem and I took apart the dash and it was a bad connection.