Hi all! I am new to this board as well as the 3rd gen Camaro. I am a 2nd gen. owner and purchased a 3rd gen. 5 weeks ago. When I purchased the car everything seemed to be working well but... now some of the guages seem to be going haywire. I repainted the car after getting it home and after rehooking the battery up I first noticed that the temp guage is pegged. I thought maybe I spiked something that caused the temp hand to get stuck in the wide open position, but today I freed it up and it gradually climbed back up there. The fuel guage likes to vary itself between full and 3/4. I believe the 3/4 reading to be correct but even sitting still I get variations. Also the oil pressure guage is reading 60+ when running and 45+ when idleing. This I'm not sure about but it sounds kinda high to me. Any ideas??

 

I'd pull the cluster. Take a little 400 grit and clean all the connectors. The gauges just push into clips. It's far less than an ideal way to connect things.

 

sounds more like a grounding issue, take a jumper cable from the neg side of the battery to the body and see if the guages Settle down. the guages will peg out when you unhook the sender, and bottom out when you ground out the sender wire. sounds like an missing ground to the body forcing the body to get it's ground from a different source, like the speedo cable.

 

also could be the baffel in your tank is missing

 

Thanks everyone. I will start with the jumper cable test and post updates.

 

I tried the jumper cable test and it didn't seem to help. I'm wondering now that I re-read this because.... I ran the other end of the cable to the frame instead of the body. Will that work or should it be to the body?
I'm even starting to notice a surge in the engine when the car is idling. Yesterday the check engine light was on for awhile.
Is there a chance that ECM is messed up? I don't understand how all of this ties together but the only gauge other than the tach that doesn't read 100% is the amp gauge. With of course the temp gauge being pegged. Man this is frustrating!!
On last thing is when we were putting the car back together we had an issue with the hatch motor and while testing we popped a fuse. It was a 15 amp fuse that controlled the taillights if I am not mistaken, but after replacing it they seemed to work fine.

 

ok lets back up a little, have you proven that your temp guage is connected, if so is it rusty or coroded (the connector metal parts male and female) while you have it off get a piece of wire strip back about 1/2" on one end and shove it into the connector (body side) then touch the other end of the wire to "Bare" metal. have someone watch your guage with the wire loose it "should" be pegged out hot, when connected it should drop to zero fast. and the jumper cable test is from battery to body only. now what it has to do with things? well I am an electronics tech by profession, and you will have to trust me, because we don't have the time or the venu to teach you electrical theory today. I rewired my first car "complete" as a freshman in high school and I turn 50 this year, I think that I have been arround this stuff for a little while. I hope that will help put your mind at ease ps I can tell you most wire colors on GM cars by memory, the water sensor is a solid green wire.

 

oh the ECM has nouthing to do with the guages at all, ECM has its own set of sensors