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Unhappy Temp Sensor Gauge Not Working (no movement)

2K views 1 reply 2 participants last post by  Mr._Graybeard 
#1 ·
Hey folks, first post here.

Background: Feeling confident after DIYing most of the maintenance on my e46, I recently decided to buy a 1995 e34 540i project car. Love those circle headlights, and for a fraction of the price of an e30! Altho it has its fair share of issues, the only one preventing me from driving the car, is the temp guage doesn't work, so I don't know if it's not getting up to temp, or overheating.

ISSUE:
My temp guage in my instrument cluster is stuck on cold, and never moves even when the car is warm.

Here's what I've done so far to troubleshoot:
1. I replaced the coolant temp sensor (that black sensor on the cooling hard pipe behind the engine). No dice.
2. I did the gauge cluster sweep test by holding the right-peg on the instrument cluster while switching the car to 'on'. The temp guage actually does sweep
3. I also tried connecting the 2 connectors on the temp sender electrical plug (jumping / grounding the connector, Idk what the right terminology is). Then when I turn the car key to 'on', the temp gauge still doesn't move.

So, given I did the above steps, I'm concluding that 1. my Temp Sensor is fine. 2. My gauge cluster is fine. And 3. the plug from the Sensor to the Gauge cluster has a wiring issue... something's stopping the signal before it reaches the cluster

It seems I have some sort of electrical issue here. I've never dealt with anything like this, I've only had experience swapping / rebuilding parts.

ASK:
I'm wondering if anyone has had similar experiences, or have clues as to what I can try/do next?
Also, I'm wondering if there's any way to read my car Temp without the temp gauge, so I can at least still drive & monitor the temp? Is there some kind of display I can bring up or secret menu? Idk


Any help is appreciated. Sympathy is appreciated too. Thx in advance all.
 
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