Problem with gauges

[newbi]

Went for a spin today, temp/fuel gauges working . Took off from stoplight and noticed both gauges were buried to the max.! Made it home and did the pound on dash trick to no avail. Gauges will return to zero when engine is off but go immediately to max when turned on. Went to temp sensor(easy to get at) and pulled the wire....the temp gauge returned to zero but fuel stayed at max. Reconnected temp sensor wire and the gauge returned to max. Any ideas anyone? PS- idiot lights work as they should(come on at switch on position) Oh yeah 92 Geo Prism(Corolla)

[ToyRollaS]

You do any mods in that area?

[newbi]

Not in the cluster per say, but in talking with a buddy, he thought that I have either pinched a wire or got a loose connector up there. I recently had to pull the evap. for the A/C along with a radio installation, so chances are good that this is the problem. Funny thing, tonight , while driving , I knew I was getting low on fuel and even though the temp and fuel gauges are maxed out, the low fuel idiot light would come on. Oh well, back to the land of skinned knuckles from pulling the dash

[Xenon]

Have you done any rewiring to the car, installed an alarm, rewired the deck or anything like that?

[newbi]

X-yes, new CD and installed electric trunk pop. Haven't got into it yet, but plan to soon. Thanks

[newbi]

Checked all the connections I could get to and they all are tight. Weird ,intermittant problem...tried duplicating it by turning steering wheel, hitting bumps at speed, jiggling wires under dash,, all to no avail. Both gauges (fuel/temp) can be fine for a day or 2 , then back to the maxing out deal. Don't know what next step to take. Any suggestions short of a long drive off a short pier? EDIT-Xenon, I did tap the hot,memory, and ground wires for a new CD deck but didn't do a chassis ground from the deck , could this be the cause? Just wondering...

[Flashmn]

Sounds like a short circuit somewhere.

[TravelHiker]

I've had the opposite problem. I just bought a 86 Corolla (AT) as a commuter car, < 110,000 miles if you can believe that. anyways, after I bought the car, I noticed my fuel gauge would rise when I start the car, then fall to empty. Every now and then, when I'm at a stop and then start rolling again, the gauge might rise a little bit, but then fall again while driving. Sometimes when I'm driving, it rises on its own and hangs there, but when I come to a stop, it falls to empty.

This didn't happen when I test drove the car on city and freeway for about 40 minutes before I bought it. I thought the gauge might be loose somewhere, but I'm not a mechanic in any sense. If you can provide an anwer, I can make my way around a car to repair it. Thanks guys!

[newbi]

Hey Travel...broke down and actually bought the factory manual for my 92. The gauges are fairly simple. They both get power from the same source and both use a double ground method of sensing temp and fuel. The sensors do nothing more than adjust resistance( from "full" to "empty" for example) through a coil which is attached to a needle. Our problems may lie in the gauge itself(solid state), the connectors or wiring between the sensors and the gauges, or the ground source to the frame. Personally, I'm still searching for a loose or broken wire but hopefully this weekend I can get to the fuel sensor( in gas tank, access under rear seat) to check the signal. Tjhis is really a headache. If it proves to be too much, I'll just wire in some aftermarket gauges

[newbi]

Ok , the saga ends...whew!
Tore into it, checked connections, temp sending, fuel sending per the manual. Concluded either the gauges were bad or a short in the wires to the senders. Went for the easiest first and bought a used cluster off ebay for $15. Sure enough, the problem was in the gauges themselves. Swapped out my speedo to the new(used ) cluster to keep the mileage right and reassembled. Whala, problem solved.

[iwan]

Hello!
I just received new glow gauges for my corolla 95/dx and woud like to know how exactly they work , its possible to connectl it to the dimmer control ? will they work ?
Regards
Iwan