gt183
Active Member
- Joined
- May 8, 2008
- Messages
- 94
- Reaction score
- 0
- City, State
- Long Island, NY
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- '05 XLT
You know when you go to fix something and it always creates another problem? Well I took the Gauge Cluster Lens off of my Explorer so that I could polish it because it had some real bad stains on it (probably from armor all or something). I drove around without the lens for about 3 weeks, and then finally put it back in. After I did, the next day I notice that my temp needle had went way south, at about the 7 O'Clock position. So I took the lens off again and just moved the needle back up, figuring I just accidently hit it or something. I then when back out to my truck a few minutes later and it had droped to about the 8 O'clock position. I just left it because I didn't have time to fix it. By the next day it had went back to the 7 O'Clock position.
Yesterday I really decided to try to diagnose the problem and fix it. I pushed the needle back to its right spot and just watched. After about two minutes all the guauges drop a little bit (without the keys in the ignition), go all the way to their maximum limit, and then go back to their normal spot, except for the temp guage. I guess this is their way of recalibrating themselves. I then tried tricking it by putting the needle higher then it should be to try to get it to land in the right spot. But what I noticed was when ever you put the keys in the ignition and then take them out, the needles will recalibrate. This eventually leads to the needle ending back up at its favorite position at 7 O'Clock.
I'm just trying to figure out how this happened by just putting the lens back up. Are there some type of weights and measures that I could of knocked out of place? Can this be fixed ellectronically? Can I just take the needle off and put it back on its holder to be at the right position when it still thinks at the 9 O'Clock position? Any advice would be much appreciated.
**Also I noticed something weird when watching the calibration. SOMETIMES, the needle for the temp guauge would just click around the 10 O'Clock position when it tried to its maximum limit. Then it would go to the 7 or 8 O'Clock position. It seemed like it was getting stuck there, so I moved the needle back and forth a few times to make sure the gears or whatever is back there werent stuck. But it seemed to work fine, and after that I never noticed it getting stuck, in that spot again. But it would still go back to 7 O'Clock.
Yesterday I really decided to try to diagnose the problem and fix it. I pushed the needle back to its right spot and just watched. After about two minutes all the guauges drop a little bit (without the keys in the ignition), go all the way to their maximum limit, and then go back to their normal spot, except for the temp guage. I guess this is their way of recalibrating themselves. I then tried tricking it by putting the needle higher then it should be to try to get it to land in the right spot. But what I noticed was when ever you put the keys in the ignition and then take them out, the needles will recalibrate. This eventually leads to the needle ending back up at its favorite position at 7 O'Clock.
I'm just trying to figure out how this happened by just putting the lens back up. Are there some type of weights and measures that I could of knocked out of place? Can this be fixed ellectronically? Can I just take the needle off and put it back on its holder to be at the right position when it still thinks at the 9 O'Clock position? Any advice would be much appreciated.
**Also I noticed something weird when watching the calibration. SOMETIMES, the needle for the temp guauge would just click around the 10 O'Clock position when it tried to its maximum limit. Then it would go to the 7 or 8 O'Clock position. It seemed like it was getting stuck there, so I moved the needle back and forth a few times to make sure the gears or whatever is back there werent stuck. But it seemed to work fine, and after that I never noticed it getting stuck, in that spot again. But it would still go back to 7 O'Clock.
