[pjs77]

I do more reading on here than posting but here goes.

After many hours, dollars and replacement parts I can't seem to get that temp gauge to come down. The back story is this:

Purchased the car last October and the temp gauge was always steady as a rock just a hair above the first white line. FF to march when I had a Porsche Shop do my belts and WP among many other things. I noticed right away that the needle was jumpy a bit and I wasn't too concerned. FF again to now and my temp gauge always reads at the third line. This has been for the last month or so. This is what I have done in an attempt to correct this:

Pressure tested tank cap and vented system about 1000 times, not seeing any bubbles
New Thermostat OEM 80C
New Thermo fan switch (lower temp than before)
New coolant hoses & heater Hoses
New HCV
New Temp Sender (the gauge one, not the DME one)
New Coolant
Cleaned MOST of my grounds (LF headlight, block, bellhousing, under drivers side dash)
Cleaned the threads to the sender and the mounting point for clean ground contact
Rewired the Temp sender with new contacts
Removed gauge cluster and cleaned the contacts per the tech write up on here

Each time I cleaned a ground the needle dropped a hair, but after doing the cluster the reading is back up but my fuel gauge is now (FINALLY) correct, it reads full, never has before in the 8000 miles I have driven it. Venting the system has no effect on this.

Initially after all the new parts I figured it had to be the grounds or air in the system as I think both of those will cause either an abnormally high reading or a jump needle. Now I am down to either the gauge itself, cleaning ALL grounds on the whole car or more venting (IDK maybe I am doing it wrong) When I vent I have tried the turkey baster method, I have tried "burping" while hot, I have tried the owners manual method and I have used a full blown pressure tester.

I'm at a loss. Why would a perfectly working combo gauge go bad? The car is stored inside, never driven in the rain or snow. Alternatively I could install a separate stand alone water temp gauge or go buy one of those thermal scanners at auto zone for $60... and shoot the top hose.

I'd like to shoot this thing right about now, with 12 a gauge Mossberg