On Sun, 2 Nov 2003, Walter Coe wrote: > Andrew, when it quit the second time, was it already at the 6 o'clock > position before you turned on the ignition? The gauge should be slow to > respond and stick about where it was the last time you had it powered. Okay, here's what's always happened historically, when the gauge has worked... It'll behave totally normally while I'm driving and then when I turn the car off, it'll end up in some random position, usually within the normal range. As soon as the ignition is turned on again, it'll bounce back to to the cold point from wherever it is and then indicate properly for the duration of running the car. I assume this is what everyone's does, but I've never looked at anyone else's. In these circumstances, what it does is jump to a random position when the car is off, and then jump right to that six o'clock position when the ignition is turned on. So it's definitely getting some kind of power, some kind of resistance, and is moving somewhere. But it only does this once when it enters failure mode and then doesn't budge at all until I disassemble and reassemble (which could, of course, affect numerous possible causes for this problem--that's hardly a one variable change). > I have little experience with volt gauges, so I'll just say what I've > heard. I assume you mean temperature here... > People before have had them stick in the 6 o'clock position. If > thwacking doesn't fix it then the next easiest fix is to push it back by > sticking a paperclip through the trip odometer reset button. Probably more easily done with a broken reset button. :-) Mine actually works... That's a good idea, though. I was prepared to disassemble the entire thing again. At least if I tap the needle with a paperclip, I know I'm affecting only a single variable. > I have also heard claims that grounding the sensor input like you tried > will damage the gauge, but I'm not sure if that is true. This should depend entirely on the gauge itself, and unless we have specs, we can't really tell. As we know from another thread (hi Bill), V=IR, so we've got to be losing ~12 volts of potential through the circuit. Whether or not the gauge alone is capable of absorbing a full 12 volts, who knows? I doubt short term exposure is likely to hurt it, though. But like you said, short term might not be long enough to get a reaction either. I don't feel comfortable grounding it for more than a couple of seconds at a time, though. > My speculation is that sensor resistance increases with engine > temperature, correct? If so then maybe grounding the input causes the > needle to show extreme low where it sticks. My assumption was the other way around, but that was only because of a couple of old threads where people were mentioning that a gauge *should* go to extreme high temperature if grounded briefly, but these all seemed to be "should" comments and I didn't see anything from anyone who sounded like he actually knew. > Maybe you have an intermittent short in the circuit? Well, we already know about my car's electrical system... :) > Let us know how you make out. I'm going to go poke it with a paperclip. If that makes it bounce back to the right spot, then we can be pretty sure it's not a short anywhere else, and is probably a dead gauge. -andrew Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ADVERTISEMENT <http://rd.yahoo.com/M=267637.4116730.5333196.1261774/D=egroupweb/S=170512 6215:HM/A=1754452/R=0/SIG=11tn6fnpm/*http://www.netflix.com/Default?mqso=6 0178324&partid=4116730> click here <http://us.adserver.yahoo.com/l?M=267637.4116730.5333196.1261774/D=egroupm ail/S=:HM/A=1754452/rand=122364232> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: DMCForum-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service <http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/> .
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