Wobbly temp gauge

[NielsGalan]

Anyone experienced the temp gauge being all wobbly?

It "seems" to be mechanical in the gauge itself. When I start the car (power up the electrics before ignition) the gauge jumps up to where it belongs. But instead of just reaching its destination it sort of wobbles up and down around where its supposed to be (as if the needle was on a spring), before it stops.

It does NOT do that on your cars, right?

Also, when driving the needle sometimes jumps up a notch stays there for a while and then jumps back to the middle. I'm sure it's not the actual coolant temperature. System is well bled.

I'm thinking either it's a mechanical thing in the instrument cluster or perhaps an issue with grounding, a faulty connection or something.

Any input?

[bimmo_2007]

I never had this issue with mine, but my friend has something might be similar to your problem in his E32, when he turns the switch to position 2 the temp and fuel gauges wobbles up and down around where it shoud be for a very short time then it stops and no more symptoms when driving.
We swapped the whole instrument cluster with another one(from our friend), the problem was solved.
In your case I'd suspect a poor grounding, bad/loose contact,etc..., so check the wiring first before going any step further.

[NielsGalan]

great, thanks.

The wire to the temp sensor is looking very filmsy/weak/crappy, so I'll probably change that and see what happens.

[bimmo_2007]

great, thanks.

The wire to the temp sensor is looking very filmsy/weak/crappy, so I'll probably change that and see what happens.

Let us know how things go.

Good luck

[Rick L]

My temp gauge started jumping around few years back. It looked like the gauge itself the way it jumped around but for my case, it turned out to be bad thermostat as strange as that sounds. I would have never guess a bad thermostat could make temp gauge jump around like this but changing it fixed it and now it goes right to 12 and stays there. :)


Anyone experienced the temp gauge being all wobbly?

It "seems" to be mechanical in the gauge itself. When I start the car (power up the electrics before ignition) the gauge jumps up to where it belongs. But instead of just reaching its destination it sort of wobbles up and down around where its supposed to be (as if the needle was on a spring), before it stops.

It does NOT do that on your cars, right?

Also, when driving the needle sometimes jumps up a notch stays there for a while and then jumps back to the middle. I'm sure it's not the actual coolant temperature. System is well bled.

I'm thinking either it's a mechanical thing in the instrument cluster or perhaps an issue with grounding, a faulty connection or something.

Any input?