I don't know about grounding a wire. In the past, the sender was just wired into the gauge, and if you grounded THAT wire the gauge would climb up to HOT. You had to stop before it got there, to avoid damaging the gauge.

But now, I think the gauge is driven by the ECU, it's not a simple stand-alone circuit. So I suspect shorting the sender wire(s) wouldn't damage the gauge.

 

i dunno what happened to the battery when i tried to turn onthe car after i installed the ipod connector the battery was dead i came back later and it started i opened the hood and there was like this grainy white stuff on the batter similar to when a normal battery leaks. I didn't mess with the dash meters at all. My dads gonna replace the battery tmrw while im at school so hopefully that work?