Tza

Hey guys, my '88 XF has an erratic temp guage.

The motor doesn't overheat but the temp guage ticks back and fowth with in time with the indicators. And, when I switch on the lights it jumps around a lot.

any ideas what the boggle is?

needturbo6

most likely a bad earth.

check/clean all earths coming to and from battery and if that doesnt fix it then clean/replace the earths of the intstrument panel

TruBlu351

Most likely the instrument panel. There'a a few places where the earth could be dodgy. A lot of XD-XF's do this. It starts very mild and then goes nuts!

1. Umbilical plugs which attach to the rear of the dash. Remove and cleans pins too.
2. Inside the instrument cluster, the fuel gauge itself attaches to a circuit board. Remove and clean connections.

__________________
XE Falcon
393 Tremec TKO 9"

Tza

Thanks, I've cleaned all the earths under the bonnet and it didn't help. I did notice that the battry only has one earth going to the engine... shouldn't it also have a earth going to the body as well??

looks like I'm gonna have to take the dash out then.... :(

Scrotus

If you have more than one earth everything should flow easier, you should have more than one earth.

needturbo6

yes i think you should have an earth goin to the body aswell

Scrotus

Tza if u have a test probe u can tell excatly what is broken.

This link explains how to test gauges, its quite easy to follow should give it a go. Test probes cost $2 or so.

http://www.moparmusclemagazine.com/techarticles/23241/

Tza

Well I put a decent earth going from the battrey to the body and it seemed to cure the problem! The car didn't seem to have one..which is odd. Only had a wire going to the engine...
so all good now. :)

Scrotus

never over look the obvious. good example.