Thread: Flickering temp gauge

On my trip back from LAX my temp gauge was flickering a bit. It wasn't overheating as far as I could tell. Engine felt fine, plenty of power, no weird noises. Needle never went higher than the lower middle part of the gauge. It would go low then bounce back up to the lower middle. It did this off and on from LA to San Diego. Then it went back to normal. What is this? Bad sensor? Ground wire?

rivet is loose on the ground wire. ive gotten away in the past with just givin it a solid smack with a drift and a hammer to re-seat it

Interesting. Thanks DxPxE, i'll check it out.

No sweat. Just pull the wire off the tab and ull know right away if thats the culprit

ive had this happen when some engine oil had gotten onto the prong coming off the engine temp sending unit.

just had to pull off the pigtail, wipe down connector, put pigtail back on

90 percent chance its probably the sending unit back around the oil filter. Brand new one is like $10 bucks at autozone.

Thanks for the help guys. Haven't had the chance to check it yet. I have driven the car a few times since that happened and it hasn't done it again. I'll still check it out though.