Searched the archives for an answer, no luck.

The heater hose under my distributor failed the other day and now my dash temp gauge isn't registering - it hasn't worked since the first time I started it to test our parking lot fix and refill to get me home. Until that happened it was fine. We replaced the coolant temperature sending unit hoping that was the problem, with no luck. It's rather concerning to be missing one of the first indications that I'm having a problem.

My car was parked and off within 30 seconds of me seeing steam coming from under the hood so if I did overheat, it wasn't for long (didn't catch what my gauge was reading at the time though). We replaced the failed hose plus the three behind the block, bled the system like mad hoping it was an air bubble, but no luck. I'm at a loss and really want to get the gauge going again. My heater works fine after the repairs.

Any suggestions for where else to look?

It's a '95 DX with 236k.

 

anyone?

 

The temperature sender is the one with one wire under the distributor. Make sure the wire is securely connected.

To test the gauge and car wiring, unplug the wire and ground it. When you turn the key on (no need to start the engine), the gauge should go all the way to hot. With the wire left open the gauge should go to cold.

 

That test was outlined in my repair manual and the needle never budged when we did it after replacing the temp sender. Bad wiring now?

 

Sounds like a bad connector. You can ohm the wire and connector. Use some very sharp leads so you can pierce the installation. Put one lead at the connector and pierce the wire insulation upstream so you can ohm out the connector.