Sticky Gauges

[TimD]

The temperature gauge in my car has a persisting issue where the needle will fall back (such that it's pointing slightly away from the side with the numbers) when the car is turned off. If this happens, more often then not, it will stick there and will not come back when the car is used. My remedy so far has been to strike the back of the gauge sufficiently hard enough that it swings back to life into the proper quadrant (the cool side of the gauge). If it remains here while the car is off, it will be good to go when I start it up.

It seems a fix would be to put in a stop to make sure the needle doesn't go too far on shutdown. Alternatively, buy a new gauge.

Anyone else ever have this issue? Know of a better fix? Could it be related to a possible hiatus the car had and thus possibly go away with time?

Thanks,
Tim

[Bitsyncmaster]

I think I had that same issue with the fuel gauge but it only happened once or twice. I also thought about putting some sort of stop but the problem went away.

[WelmoedJ]

My temp gauge also every-now-and-then shows this awkward behavior.
When it happens I start driving and after some five minutes I slap the side of the binnacle.
This usually makes the gauge work as before.

It could be a contact problem, but also - of there is some grease in there - a rusty behavior caused by old grease.
I live with it for over a year now and have no urge to replace or open the binnacle.
It still shows the correct temp while in operating mode.
Once it stays "dead", I feel that's the moment to act.

[bandit]

Mine used to do the same thing. Remove the small black plastic knob, the one you use to re-set the mileage trip, then slip the sleeve off it. This will leave a small hole through the plastic lens of the clocks, its just enough to get a bent piece of wire through.
(I used a re-shaped paper clip)
It is a little of a fiddle but you can reach the needle & flick it back up, it has basically slipped round off it's 'seat' at the back.
I did it with mine & it's been fine ever since
Julian

[dn010]

The problem is that when you shut off the car, some of the gauges go crazy (electric surge?) and rotate too much out of range and get stuck - some of mine have gone 360 degrees around because there is nothing to stop them.This used to happen to mine all the time [mainly temp gauge], I'd have to slam my hand down on the binnacle in order to get everything reset. I got tired of this, so I removed the gauges, drilled tiny holes slightly above the top hash mark and slightly below the bottom hash mark on all gauges. I then cut jumbo paper clips down to I think 3/8" length and glued them in the holes to prevent the needle from going too far out of range when the car is shut off. This should have been done factory - I did this probably 9 years ago, no troubles since.