Hi guys,

Greetings from Costa Rica!!

My car is having a problem with the temp gauge, the gauge is stuck and it is not moving, and I call the dealer here in CR and the price for the whole gauge cluster is around $500, money that I don't have at this moment. I'm wondering if it is possible, in the meantime, to use a after market temp gauge. I found one by Netami, it is just a Water Temp Gauge. If it is ok to use it, should I just plug it to the sensor or use the wires from the harness that goes to the cluster? if i need to use the wires from the harness, do you know what cable should I use?

Thanks in advance!

 

There can be three things wrong with your car. The fuel temperature gauge, the temperature sending unit, or the wiring.

The temperature sending unit is on the cylinder head near where the upper radiator hose attaches. It has a one wire connector to it, and that wire is red.

Unplug that connector and make sure the connector does not touch any metal. Go in the car and start it up. See if the needle moves to cold. If you have and assistant, turn off the car. Have them touch that red wire to ground (any bare metal bolt nearby). The gauge should start rising. EDIT: Make sure that your assistant doesn't touch the ground for too long, because the needle will rise to H and can get damaged.

If the gauge does not respond, then I would buy the cluster from a junkyard. You can take apart the cluster and swap out the temperature gauge. Download a 94 shop manual from the links in the Online Manuals thread in the DIY section. It will show you how the steps to do this.

You may be able to find the gauge by itself on Ebay. The Classified section has a 95 accord that someone is parting out that may have that part for you.

 

Thanks! I already check the temp sending unit and touch the cable with ground but the needle didn't move. I'll try to find the cluster from a junkyard! If by any chance this does not work, what should I try? It is worth to mention that the temp sending unit wire was not connected, I connected but it made no difference, also I think that the cable is not red as you mentioned but yellow with a black stripe.

 

You are correct about the wire being yel/grn. The picture has it labeled as red in the shop manual, but the description has yel/grn. Thanks for catching that.

You can plug in the junkyard cluster and see if the temperature gauge works on the replacement unit. If it does, then the temp. gauge or the cluster board were the problem.

I would probably use the new temperature gauge in your original cluster. Then your odometer reading will be correct. That is up to you. Remember that a MT and AT cluster are different, because the AT cluster has all the gears P,R,N,D3, etc.. The MT one does not. Any 94-97 cluster should work.

If the original cluster + new temperature gauge doesn't work, I would use the junkyard cluster + your speedometer.