88 GTA 350 i have the digital dash, and the temp gauge does not work, it lights up when you start the car, but running it does not display nothing, does anyone know where the wire goes to get the temp from the motor.

or where else i should begin to check. here is a picture of the dash

 

It's most likely the sending unit. It can be found on the driver's side head, inbetween the #'1 1 and 3 spark plugs if i remember right. It has a one-wire connector, and the wire is green I think. Remember to drain the coolant before you pull it and use teflon tape on it to seal the threads on the new one.

 

Thanks that was it. Now the guy i purchased the car from must have disconnected the wire from the dash to put the aftermarket one there.

Do you know where the dash wire is located, is it this one i have circled in the picture. Is this the wire that should be connected to it.

The one i have connected to the sending unit now is for the aftermarket gauge.

 

That is the wire, but you still need to swap out that sending unit for the factory one, available at any parts store. Make sure to get the one for gauges, not idiot lights. The one for the digi dash and analog gauges is the same.

 

Thank You for the reply back, before u had replied i did try to hook up that wire to the sending unit and still got no reading on the dash. and was unsure.

Is there a way to hook up both guages the aftermarket one and the digital dash one.

I also have an aftermarket Oil guage on the pod also, that one and the dash gauge work, but sometimes i dont always get the same reading on both

Sorry to be a pain and sound stupid.

 

No worries, I was once in your shoes with the digital dash too! Let's tackle your coolant temp first. You didn't get any reading on the dash because the sending unit for the aftermarket gauge probably sends a whole different signal to the dash, so if it isn't the right one, you won't see anything. By putting the factory sending unit in, it oughta work. If not, that green wire is either cut somewhere or you have a bad cluster.

You can run both, best way I can think of do it is to run a t fitting out of that hole in the head, on one side put the factory sender and on the other side, use your aftermarket sender. Hook up the correct sender wires to the correct sender and you should be in business.

For the oil, my opinion, as well as probably everyone on this site, is to trust the aftermarket one over the factory digital one, especially if the aftermarket one is mechanical. The factory digital gauges were not known for their supreme accuracy, and on that note, neither were the regular analong ones. Usually, the factory ones are close enough to not matter a whole lot, but sometimes they can be WAY out there. I got lucky, I verified mine with an analog gauge and it is pretty good.

I would keep the aftermarket oil gauge, just in case your digital one craps out or if you want to verify its accuracy at any time.