Short to the instrument cluster?

dookiemane

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Hey folks, I'm having a problem with some of the gauges in my '97 instrument cluster. The fuel gauge used to work then began to work intermittently, and now is completely shot save for sweeping sometimes when the car starts then returning to past E regardless of how much gas is in the tank. The trip meter and odometer are fully gone and have probably been dead years before I had the car. The temperature gauge sort of works? For the most part, it sits below cold but when the engine does overheat (a problem for another thread, ugh) it will shoot straight to hot but I don't know if that is how it is supposed to function.

I believe that I've ruled out the cluster itself because I replaced it with an almost exact replacement (from an automatic mine is a stick) and the exact same problems persist. This is my first car and it's a bit of a project so I've been trying to use it to teach myself to work on my own car, but electrical problems really intimidate me. Please give advice if you can!
 

07GtS197

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Most likely the fuel gauge issue is the float cracking and sinking to the bottom of the tank. The odometer not working is probably the odometer gears being broken, it’s a common issue.

And the temperature issue, well that could be a few things. Hows the coolant level?
 
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dookiemane

dookiemane

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Most likely the fuel gauge issue is the float cracking and sinking to the bottom of the tank. The odometer not working is probably the odometer gears being broken, it’s a common issue.

And the temperature issue, well that could be a few things. Hows the coolant level?
I never thought of the fuel float, I guess that would explain how it's been slowly working less and less. Dropping the tank is a PITA but since it's the weekend I'll try and check it out. As for the coolant, the car had an overheating problem when I bought it and after replacing the thermostat and sensor it was fine. Recently though a hose behind the engine popped off and sprayed out all of the coolant and I've been running water until I could buy new coolant. I keep bleeding air out of the system but the gauge keeps reading hot, today I'll super flush the system and add actual coolant to see if that fixes the issue.
 

ttocs

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The temp sensor that shows on the dash is only for the dash(not the ecu) and is known to go bad.
 

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