Rokas

So I had this wacky idea to slap the dash a couple times to see if the needle was stuck. I had disconnected and reconnected the old Coolant Temp Sender. Sure enough, it started moving! Well I beat on it and slapped it a few more times and whaddyaknow? The gauge is working.

Then over the next few days I see it going down slowly. It jumped to the line before red at first, then it dropped to the middle and stayed there, but then I turned the car on when it was cool and it went down further. Now it's down to the last line before completely cold.

If I turn the key to the ON position, the needle swings up so I don't think it's stuck. So why do you guys think it's doing this? I do have a new coolant temp sensor I haven't put in but it seems more like a bad thermostat or a gauge issue although the idle is fine when it warms up. Any ideas?

Rokas

Also, if the car WERE to start overheating (which I think is fine cause I drove like an hour and a half during the record heat day here in Florida a week ago), you guys think it WILL go up? It's obviously reading the temp.

ANOTHER thing I noticed. Originally, the needle would drop about two lines higher than it should have. Now it goes down all the way to the bottom when I turn the car off. Could this account for why the needle is off? Cause that's about the amount of space that its missing from being in the middle...

Losiracer2

are you serious? replace the coolant temp sensor. Stop beating on it like a starter lol. Its a plastic encased sensor. If you knocked the wire off or hit the pins, of course it won't work properly.

Rokas

I'm not sure you read what I wrote. I replaced the Coolant Temp Sensor. I did not, however, replace the Coolant Temp SENDER, however I think the wire was disconnected at some point which I simply plugged back in.

I banged on my dash. Not really beating a starter...