Weird temp gauge issue

[Bonkers]

About a year ago my temp gauge began spiking to the red
at start up even though it was way to soon to be even warm
yet. I discovered if I blipped the RPMs over 4k the gauge
would stabilize and operate normally for the duration of the
trip - regardless of how long that was.

I drove down to VOI with no change, but during the scenic
cruise the gauge spiked again and never came back down.
Luckily for me Tator was there and diagnosed the issue as
a bad sensor. We all agreed the car was running at proper
temp dispite the gauge.

Recently I installed the new sensor and the gauge is back to
spiking when cold. But now it feels/smells like the car is
overheating on long runs. The gauge needs the blip to set
when cold, but shows normal the rest of the time.

Any ideas?

 

[bluesrt]

if its not overheating for shure, prolly a bad cluster or maybe poor connection electrically with computer connections at a point

 

[speedracervr4]

Hook up a data logger and see what the temperature actually is.

 

[uvbnbit]

Hook up a data logger and see what the temperature actually is.

^^^this^^^

plus, did you install Mopar sensor? no aftermarkets when it comes to coolant temp sensors. Sounds like connector problem to me though.

 

[Martin2000GTS]

Had somewhat the same problem in my 2000 GTS. Randomly it would just go over to the red. Chuck fixed it with a new "sensor" And its been fine ever since (3 years now)....Hope you figure it out.

 

[Jack B]

verify the voltage in the sensor circuit as the car warms up. This is a basic 0-5 volt analog out. If you see a non linear change it is either a sensor or a intermittant/poor ground.