Temp gauge suddenly different

[Frankenchevy]

When I had my cluster out, I wiped my gauges with a terry cloth. In order to completely wipe, I manually moved the needle. Now the gauge is reading 40-50 degrees higher than it was before. It wasn’t accurate before, read 160 while 185. Now it reads 210.

Is there a position I should move the needle to begin with, or should it be able to move to the correct position the next time the key turns on?

Side question, any recommendations on aftermarket clusters that look similar to factory gauges but more accurate I.e. Autometer, etc?

 

[Camar068]

LMC gauges don't cost much. $37 for my k10.

 

[Frankenchevy]

LMC gauges don't cost much. $37 for my k10.

Do they seem more accurate than the factory gauges?

 

[Ricko1966]

Where are you checking temperature? Where is the gauge sender? Temp is not the same at the head,the manifold,and the radiator. Now this is kind of complicated to some but if you take your gauge and use a variable resistor to find let's say what position the resistor needs to be at to make the gauge read 200. Now measure the value of the variable resistor. Find a temperature sender with that value at 200 and install it,or if the value on your sender is too low at 200 add a resister to get to the correct value. The gauge may or may not be 100% accurate at 100 or 300 but everything near 200 will be right on or really close,and it may be dead nuts accurate all the way through,just not guaranteed without more effort than I described.

 

[Frankenchevy]

Where are you checking temperature? Where is the gauge sender? Temp is not the same at the head,the manifold,and the radiator. Now this is kind of complicated to some but if you take your gauge and use a variable resistor to find let's say what position the resistor needs to be at to make the gauge read 200. Now measure the value of the variable resistor. Find a temperature sender with that value at 200 and install it,or if the value on your sender is too low at 200 add a resister to get to the correct value. The gauge may or may not be 100% accurate at 100 or 300 but everything near 200 will be right on or really close,and it may be dead nuts accurate all the way through,just not guaranteed without more effort than I described.

I have two senders, one in the IM and another me in the DS block. I beleive the IM location is for the computer and the block location is for the gauge.

Are you shooting the water neck with an IR thermometer to determine actual temperature?

 

[Ricko1966]

Temperature at the head which is where your sender sounds like it is located,us typically 20 degrees hotter than at the water neck.

 

[Camar068]

Do they seem more accurate than the factory gauges?

that I'm not sure about

 

[Frankenchevy]

Temperature at the head which is where your sender sounds like it is located,us typically 20 degrees hotter than at the water neck.

The thing is, I never changed sender locations. It just went from reading 160 to 210…

I shot the water neck with an IR thermometer today and it read 178℉.

 

[Ricko1966]

I guess I've gotten somethings confused,I thought you manually moved your needle position and now we're talking about needle position doesn't match actual temp. Didn't match actual temp before either and was off by 25 degrees before which I why I was asking where the sender was vs where you were checking temp,thinking that might be tge whole discrepancy.Sounds like moving your needle caused your discrepancy and you need to move it back is all maybe a little further back. IDK if you can reposition the needle or not hopefully someone else does,because I don't feel like taking the gauges out if my parts truck to be the guinea pig. Not that I need tge gaiges,it's just the time involved. Sorry

 

[Frankenchevy]

I guess I've gotten somethings confused,I thought you manually moved your needle position and now we're talking about needle position doesn't match actual temp. Didn't match actual temp before either and was off by 25 degrees before which I why I was asking where the sender was vs where you were checking temp,thinking that might be tge whole discrepancy.Sounds like moving your needle caused your discrepancy and you need to move it back is all maybe a little further back. IDK if you can reposition the needle or not hopefully someone else does,because I don't feel like taking the gauges out if my parts truck to be the guinea pig. Not that I need tge gaiges,it's just the time involved. Sorry

No, I wouldn’t expect you to do that and I appreciate you trying to help pinpoint the issue.