coolant temp gauge jumps..?
Thread Starter
Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 942
Likes: 3
From: Saint Louis, MO
coolant temp gauge jumps..? my problem sounds pretty odd and i have tried searching.
about a month ago i noticed that my check gages light would come on out of the blue but gages read fine and would turn off(stayed on a total of 1-2seconds). now its starting to happen more and now a sputter is going along with it. so today im leaving work and decide to take the long way home and it has started to get really bad. here is what it is doing. around turns or on acceleration the check gages light will illuminate and my coolant temp gage will peg for a second and go back to normal and the car will sputter and miss, then my headlights will slightly dim like a volt surge.
i know my car is not running hot at all. steady at 180-190. so im thinkin that its the alternator crapping out and not supplying enough volts, and causing weird electrical probs. if anyone has had this prob please let me know how to remedy it. thanks guys!!!
sorry for the lengthy explenation.
about a month ago i noticed that my check gages light would come on out of the blue but gages read fine and would turn off(stayed on a total of 1-2seconds). now its starting to happen more and now a sputter is going along with it. so today im leaving work and decide to take the long way home and it has started to get really bad. here is what it is doing. around turns or on acceleration the check gages light will illuminate and my coolant temp gage will peg for a second and go back to normal and the car will sputter and miss, then my headlights will slightly dim like a volt surge.
i know my car is not running hot at all. steady at 180-190. so im thinkin that its the alternator crapping out and not supplying enough volts, and causing weird electrical probs. if anyone has had this prob please let me know how to remedy it. thanks guys!!!
sorry for the lengthy explenation.
Have you checked you battery to ensure it is properly secured? A lot of people have complained about similar symptoms, only to find out that the battery was loose, or the battery cables were loose, or some other electrical short was happening. In cases where it was a loose battery, the battery would short out on the shock tower post or AC accumulator upon hard accelerations. Check those things out, I would bet on a loose connection.
Just a shot in the dark here, but you may take a look at your temperature sending unit on front of the drivers head. I cracked mine doing a plug change and did not realize it. I would get the same problems you are describing. One day it would not start, I started searching around and found the cracked unit, replaced it and cured all of my problems.
Good luck
Good luck
