I have an 02 Lancer OZ who's Temp gauge doesn't move. The car heats up and the actual theromostat opens and closes as normal. The gauge just sits on the cold side even though the heat is on and kicking.

I pulled the cluster and looked on the backside of the gauges but there doesn't appear to be any loose wires or broken connections. Does anyone have any ideas as to why the temp gauge wouldn't move?

Any help would be ... well helpful.

 

You've got a bad sensor on the engine. It's located on the side of the thermostat housing and has a 1-wire connection. It's pretty common for that sensor to go bad. I've been through 2 of them since 2003.

 

check if you touched anything around the thermostat... the tiny clip tends to break... i had to replace mine...

 

+1 to both these guys.
I'd check to make sure you haven't broken the sensor wire and if not replace it and see what happens.
Pretty cheap fix.

 

If its just the little tab off the sensor you can use an alligator clip and flatten the end where you would put a wire that way you can slip the wiring harness conector right on without issue. I have had mine like that for about a year now. Only reason I dont get a new sensor though is it would just break again due to the postion of my IC piping.

 

for over 2 years i drove my car with a water temp gauge that doesn't move, thx to this forum i check the connection to the sensor, i dont think it was plugged in right, so i fixed it tried different positioning and it work. it should take about 20 seconds for the gauge to move/work