Fuel and Temp Gauges gone wacky

[1979lee]

98 lumina 3100v6

 

my temp and fuel gauges have gone goofy on me here latly.

the gasfuel gauge has been acting up for mounths now (1/2 will show full) or bounce around e to f and back .

 

now my temp gauge is messing up, the cars not overheating, shes running very well.

 

ive got the tach gauge cluster. i swapped it in around january 2011

 

it was used and out of a 97 monte carlo, it was clean and it looked good

i put my spedo in the cluster and installed it , worked well for a long time , now this crap....

 

 

any thoughts?

iam more worried about the temp gauge than the gas gauge

do i need to replace my temp sendor? if so where it that located on the engine?

i may go out and get me another cluster............

thanks all, you have hel;ped my with my lumina many times and i thank all of you

[94 olds vert]

The fuel gauge is likely the fuel sender in the tank. Either a bad ground or a failing unit is causing the gas gauge to bounce around like that. I just had to get mine replaced.

[1979lee]

yeah i had thought the same thing

if my fuel pump ever fails ill get to that sendor

[Addicted2bass]

There should be a temp sensor on the intake and one on the heads. The one on the heads I believe is the one that the guage gets its information from. At least this is the case on the 3.1 engine.

[urbex]

Beings that you never had an issue before you swapped clusters, I'd look at that first... Do you still have your old cluster? Might want to throw that back in it and see if the problem goes away.

[1979lee]

Ok everyone, i swapped out the cluster, found a nice one out of a 99 lumina ls, 140k car, looked like a blown tranny.

 

well the gas gauge still messesup the temp too but not as bad.

 

where is the temp gauge sender unit located 3100 98 lumina?

 

thanks.

[1979lee]

so ok , took a 230 mile drive in her today, drove/worked/performed great

but the damn coolant temp gauge Still goes gogogaga on me

 

anyone got ideas how to fix this?

 

i still need the location of the ct sender? is it the same one that is used for the efi? , i know where that one is and its a simple swap.

 

please help!!!

[AL]

Under the throttle body I believe mounted by the where the radiator hose connects

[1979lee]

yes, i know of that sender. do these cars only use one sender unit ?

 

thanks, i will be replaceing this sender soon, its only like 15.99 from orilys

[AL]

Yep thats the only one... Are you sure its just the gauge or is your engine actually getting hotter and colder? If it is, replace your thermostat

[1979lee]

no, its the gauge, engines dont go from normal to max 260 hot in 1 second and then back and forth that fast, i thought the same the first time it did this.

 

i just went out and looked, if i can tie the throttle open far enough i can get a scoket or end wench on the sender and get it out. i wish id changed

the sendor when i cleand the throttle body and egr stuff last winter...

[AL]

Ive gotten it out without too much hassle before, I put a brick on my gas pedal I think

[1979lee]

Ive gotten it out without too much hassle before, I put a brick on my gas pedal I think

 

Brick? i never thought about that!!!!

[AL]

And I think I used a swivel socket too... Its been about 3 years ago

[1979lee]

Al thanks so kindly for the help tonight!

[AL]

Not a problem! Hope that fixes it

[1979lee]

Not a problem! Hope that fixes it

 

ME TOO!!!

[AL]

One more thing, If an air bubble hits that sensor, I wonder if it can make it do that to the gauge?

[1979lee]

One more thing, If an air bubble hits that sensor, I wonder if it can make it do that to the gauge?

 

thats totally possible. the last time i had the system open is when i did the tb and egr cleaning, i relplaced the little hoses the flow dexcool through the tb and i did the heater hoses to. i burped the siystem like your supposed to, but its possible there's an air bubble floating round in there someplace.

 

but still 179k and the original cts? time to change it out, and for the price why not!!!

 

thanks again al