Gauge or Sending Unit??? | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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Gauge or Sending Unit???

JohnnyRook

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March 26, 2008
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Year, Model & Trim Level
'94 Eddie Bauer
Hi All,

The oil, temperature, and battery voltage gauges in my ex are acting up. The temperature gauge doesn't seem to work at all. It just sits well below the "c" and never moves. The oil gauge is some times all the way to the left (off the scale) and some times right in the middle. The battery gauge is usually off the scale to the left, but if I tap it, it will fall to the middle. The battery gauge shows some signs of life i.e. when it's in the middle and I roll down the windows it twitches to the left.

My question is: are the gauges messed up? Is it the sending units? Or is the instrument panel not getting power? Any help is much appreciated.
 



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Well, your battery gauge acts just like mine, sticks over to the left more often then not, a tap on the plastic cover fixes...until I turn the truck off again. The other gauges are not getting a signal I would think. At least the temp gauge, if the Oil gauge sometimes reads "nada" and other times reads normal then it might be a short.
 






So what do you think, pull out the cluster and check the wiring? Do you think the problem lies with the sending units, or their wiring?
 






Even though it's possiable, I would think the chance of both sending units going bad at the same time is low. I would say it's in the wires somewhere, I bet your temp gauge wire is cut/unplugged, and the Oil is damaged/loose. That form the behavior you state. Course it could be something else too, but if it was me I'd check those things, with a multimeter if I had one or could get one! And I would trace then from the sorce back to the gauge and see where I lose siginal.
 






Great thanks. I think I'm going to start by checking the temp gauge by grounding the sending unit. Just like to check my bases before I take out the instrument cluster. Hopefully it's just a couple bad sending units or some old wiring.
 






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