I've been messing with this problem for several months now - taking the guage cluster in and out about 50 times now. I've done searches and seems like a common problem that has no solution that I can find as of yet.

I've swapped in the oil and temp guage pair from a donor truck into my 4runner cause my oil guage wasn't working while my temp guage was working properly. Now the oil guage works but the temp guage is now possessed (jumps to red, sometimes works, sometimes doesn't). Wish I would have settled for a working temp guage and non-working oil guage. I made the mistake of taking off the needle heads and re-inserting them. I'm pretty sure it's an electrical issue at the guage and not caused by the sending unit since it was working before the swap.

Everytime I've taken it apart and jiggled wires, and re-inserted the needle, it makes it work for a while, then quits.

My question is, how do I make sure it is properly grounded? It seems like this would be the problem. Do I follow the black wire from the left most bundle into the dark abyss of the dash to make sure it's grounded?

I'm partial to the stock interior look so holding out on putting in an accurate temp guage. Other's have this happen? How'd ya get it fixed? Any help is greatly appreciated - Thanks.