Hey guys, well i was fixin the car, got it running now. and when i syphoned out all the gas in the tank, and then put new gas in the car. the fuel gauge went from empty to way past F. and its like pinned there and has not moved. also as the car was being fixed now the temp gauge does not work either. its pinned all the way up. can u tell me what is going on or wat i did to do this? thanx

 

i know on my 89 rs my temp gauge was pinned all the way up and when i took the gauges console apart i found that when i start my car the temp needle shoots all the way up and gets stuck on the rim of the gauge so i just moved it and i, still working on a fix so it stops getting stuck for the time being when i put the console back together i didnt put the clear plastics back on so i can i stick it when it stick i dont know if thats what wrong with yours but maybe this will help

 

Long freakin sentence...

 

that doesnt help me at all., there is a reason why its gettn stuck, it wrkd b4 sooo sumthing is up

 

I'm just about sure this will happen if the wiring is not connected. It's also possible that the printed circuit on the back of the cluster is bad,... that could be related to the Temp gauge problem as well.

 

Mine used to stick on the outer rim too, I just took it off and bent the outer rim so that when it hit it wouldnt be able to go over it and get stuck like it used too.

 

I'm working with the same problem. My 88 camaro had the radio wiring all screwed up when I bought it. I've pretty much got it back to working, but there is a brown wire that is supposed to be for the dimmer. When I had this wire hooked up, everything in the interior worked, but the tail lights stayed on. When I unhooked it, the tail light went off, but now the fuel gauge and the temp gauge are pegged on. Still looking for the correct place to put the brown wire.

 

i dont know why it doesnt work, it workd fine until i syphoned out the gas of the car, even the temp went bad after that im not sure.. i know that the sending unit looked ok and i changed the fuel pump too

 

my 91 rs temp and gas gauge doesnt work, when you have the car running, try pushing in on the bottom right side of the gauge cluster, this makes my temp gauge work, I'm still trying to figure out why my fuel gauge is way past full, I'm tired of calling my buddies to rescue me with gas.

 

hey cam i have that same problem. i will get to the gauges when im done restoring the engine.

 

Has anyone from this post with fuel gauge trouble found a solution yet? I got my `88 Iroc back from the air conditioning shop and the fuel gauge is all the way up and won`t come down. I can`t think of anything they could have done to cause this, they only worked in the engine compartment. Grounds check out ok.

 

I just started a similar thread about my cluster freaking out after the lights have been on for a few minutes. The only real difference is that in m ine everything but the speedo trips out. I thought it was being caused by a crusty headlamp/dimmer switch, which I replaced last night, but it still does it.

Hey dan82009- I too had to un-f*** the radio wiring, abut my brown dimmer wire works fine now. Does anyone know if the whole dash is a floating ground? Mabey when something goes T/U it causes everything else to malfunction? Or... possibly the failure of 1 component increases the stress on the rest of the adjacent electronics, leading to them eventually failing?

 

I found an easy but not recommended fix for the gas gauge that is stuck past full. Mine was stuck for the past week+, ever since I got it back from getting the air serviced. While running errands today I hit a pothole, cussed about the damage the streets around here are doing to our cars and noticed the gas gauge was working again.

 

I have the same problem. I traced wires for most of my guages and fixed them all but one. I haven't found the pesky coolant temp guage wire that is causing my headache. Whatever it is made it where my fan didn't cut on - at temperature or when the A/C was turned on. (replaced relays and all coolant sensors)

I had the entire instrument cluster and printed circuit mailed to a place in Virginia to check everything over. It came back with my speedo off more than it was previously (shaking and noises were gone though) and the temp guage still pinged as soon as the ignition key was turned forward.

My fans are now wired separately from the original wiring ... So there goes one work around.

 

I have a 89 Iroc and have the same exact issues. The temp gauge never has worked and I have replaced the sensor. Is there a way to use a tester or send a current through the wires at the sensor to figure anything out?

My fuel gauge used to work, but now is stuck up top. I might take the cluster off, but besides taking it off and pushing on the needles, I have no clue what to do.

I have a tester, but do not know what to test. I will keep searching and reading, but thought I would get in on this thread.

 

I had the same problem once. When I pulled the cluster out and put it back in and half the gauges did not work. But they all worked before that.

It is connection issue.

The connectors that slide into the cluster have metal contacts that over time depress in and lose contact. So the solution is to pull the cluster out. Get a jewlers screwdrive and for each of the contacts pry them a bit so they sit higher. Then when you put the cluster back in all contacts should seat firmly and your gauages work. Unless you fuel sender to the gauge is rooted the method above will fix most problems with gauges not working.

 

Johnlarson66, my `88 Iroc fuel gauge does the same thing every time I top off the tank. When your fuel level is down a little from full, try tapping on the tank and you may be able to jar the stuck float loose. I figured this out when my gauge was stuck on full and I hit a pot hole and it started working again. If I want the gauge to work I don`t top off.

 

That is when it stopped working.

I am going to take the cluster off this weekend and look at the connections and see if I can "spring" some of them off. I will also look to see if any of them are stuck. I will also tap on the gas tank once I am done with the gauge. With the power off, the gauges still stay up, so I think they just might be stuck as someone else posted.

I want to keep the inside as original as possible, so I don't want to use aftermarket gauges, so I really want to have this one work.

 

You can't tell if the sending unit is any good by looking at it.
You need to measure it with an Ohmmeter. the resistance should vary as you move the float up and down. I can't remember the range off hand but if you do a search I'm sure it's been covered.

BTW the sending unit in these cars go bad often. I've owned two 89s and both had bad sending units. More bad news the dealer wants over $600.00 for them.

 

Mines not working as well, note to self, drive over rocks!
Damn, don't feel like messing anymore with my car, I guess I'll have to remember to top off my car every week.

I have 2 other fuel gauges to try since i originally had my 85 speedo/cluster, my replacement 110 speedo/cluster; on that note the 110 seems to have a bad connection with the rpm gauge since that doesn't work but everything else does!

Oh, damn you gremlins! Everytime I find one I try to fix it and so on and so on and so on...

Time to go to sleep, been messing with my car since I woke up yesterday at 3pm.

...
On the last reply, damn how much does a sending unit cost? I figure I can replace it myself at that price!

The cost of paying someone else to do all the work I just did is the only reason I've learned how to 'mechanic' on my car.

--As of 08/02/08--
-Replaced Fuel Filter (7-11 bucks but can't remember,cheapo autozone brand luber something or other)
-Replaced all 8 injectors with remanufactured 19lb 'ford' injectors from fic (135 or so dollars)
-Replaced EGR valve, thought it was stuck, good thing I did this since the area was 'getting' more blocked with soot/carbon. Took me a good while to get it clean without dumping stuff down the manifold. (egr valve was 73.99)
-All this required removing all my vacumm hoses (about 11.00 worth of replacement hosing to fix what I lost or wasn't routed correctly), moving my ac compressor out of the way along with my alternator; so that was a pain. Also it required the replacement of all the gaskets that were damaged but since I bought a complete kit it was like 36-32 bucks.
-Valve cover replacement (25.99)and new felpro permadry gasket (36.XX) installed
-Oil change (filter was a fram ph30 & 10w40 cheapo from walmart, was planning to seafoam my car which is why I got the cheap stuff but then wimped out of doing it, can't remember but it was less than 25.00)
-cluster swap
--Misc. cleaning supplies, ~100.00, yup I sprayed down my car pretty good since it was a mess, oil stains from my valve covers leaking, and other unknown stains. My engine bay looks a lot better than before.

 

I am hopeful the above will help me with my own guage problems. I seem to have bought myself an 800.00 mess. I am determined to get it back right however.

 

This worked for my temp gauge. At start up it pegs all the way then was getting stuck. I just bent the outer rim. My gas gauge is still not working right, but it is not stuck. I am guessing the sending unit is bad. My trip meter does not work either so I will just have to remember to top it off once in a while. I will have to wait for a bit before replacing it. I had to have one replaced before (on a different camaro), I had it done when the fuel pump went bad. My guess is that I will just wait and replace both at the same time. I am not sure if I want to do this or have a shop do it. I think they charged me 2 hours labor last time, but that was a few years back. Paying for 2 hours might be better then spending 8 hours on it myself.

Thanks for information, I would have never guessed it was sticking on the rim.

 

The fuel guage sending unit is >$600.00. That doesn't include the fuel pump or labor.

 

well i got the same problem with the gas gauge the only difference with mine its that i swapped clusters and still the same also the other thing its that my needle doesn't get stuck it just kind of bounces past full all the time even with the new cluster and i cleaned all connectors already has any one fixed this issue and also you guys think the sending unit will do that (the bouncing)

 

Funny thing is that rockauto has that same sending unit for sub 200.00; not sure if it includes the pump or not but a new pump depending runs less than a 100.00 bucks if I recall correctly.

My own sweat and tears of frustration are free!

Swapped clusters but no go; figure it's the sending unit. I'm just keeping tabs on my gas now.