Had to drive Dad's '94 Astro van the other day and his temp gauge pegs on startup...I thought we were the only ones ?

At least GM is consistent.

My 84 z-28 did it too. It stuck several times until I took the gauge out and bent the far right edge of the gauge face up enough to act like a travel stop for the needle. Never another problem

This problem is caused by an wiring design problem. I downloaded a wiring fix last year and put it on my Formula. It works fine. If anybody is interested I will dig it out of my files and post it.

No no...I thought the needles were SUPPOSED to peg. Like a self test. The same way the dummy lights all come on, just for a sec as a bulb test, when you first turn the key.

I don't understand why so many people have such an issue with this "guage peg" thing. So it pegs. SO WHAT. At least you know the guage is moving freely all the way to the right and that it doesn't get caught up on something. What if your guage got stuck or something cause you "fixed" your pegging guage "problem" and your temp was actually higher then what the guage was reading and then you see your car spuing steam out from whereever it would come out from and then you wonder what the hell is going on cause your guage is reading 190 degrees.

I say so what to the pegging guage so called problem. It is for the first second the car starts up and then it is no more. NO MORE. Does this one second peg problem really bother that many people out there? I am sorry but it doesn't bother me. For one reason I don't look at my temp guage when I start my car. I assume a lot of people do as I have heard many people besides Fiero folk think that this is some sort of problem and rewire the guage to keep this from happening.

How many people that post to this forum get aggitated by their temp guage? Don't you think there are other bigger problems to worrry about then a guage going all the way to the right when you start your car? Come on people.

JMHO. Shaun

Actually, When mine would peg, it usually wouldnt drop back down again until I tapped the dash several times. I think that is why people have a problem with the juice applied to the gauge at startup.

Most of the posts I've seen on the pegging gauge problem regard it as an annoyance...but what I'd like to know is if it causes actual damage to the gauge.

Seems like my needle does hang up after pegging and even after changing the sender, I still don't trust it.

Apparently, A LOT of people are bothered by the "pegging gauge" problem, based on how many electrons are being consumed in message threads. (BTW, the correct way to spell gauge is GAUGE, not GUAGE!!) If it were only an issue of the needle HARMLESSLY being exercised, I would agree that there shouldn't be any concerns. BUT...

In my past experiences, pegging meters usually ended up bending the needles, which results in INACCURATE readings sometime down the road. Inaccuracy is WORSE than none-functioning - one never knows what the meter actually reads.

In the Fiero's case, there are no PEGs to stop the needle! So the needle has a tendency to rotate on its shaft, giving no exterior indication of pegging. Not only could the above be a problem, but also the needle has a tendency to get stuck at full sweep position, which will be difficult to dislodge.

The previous posts which identified a fix is good to revisit. It's the way GM should have wired the Fiero.

IMHO... of course. ( )

Right now I have more things to worry about than a pegging needle. If the needle takes a dive later down the road, then I will make adequate changes. If it ain't broke ...

If the guage just pegged and returned it isn't a problem, but mine would go off the scale and stick. There was an article in a magazine a couple years ago about how to take the guage apart and put a glue a stop on it. The wiring fix is a better solution.

I bought a small pack of black anti skid rubber feet (kinda like whats on the bottom of telephones) and stuck one of those in the corner of the gauge. That works very well and you cant tell that its there.

The main difference between my Fiero gauge and the Astro gauge pegging seems to be that the Astro has a damped gauge movement...it slowly pegs as opposed to the Fiero that violently pegs.

The Astro's pegging is probably harmless for that reason. Too bad the Fiero gauge doesn't have a damped movement.

I'd let this topic drop, but I have to get my replies in so the "junior" gets dropped in my login.

C'Mon, I'm 39...no one has called me "junior" since I was about 5.

Is that the way you become a "normal" member? You just have to have a certain amount of posts? I was wondering when I bacame a "member".

Seems I read that it takes 30 posts/replies before the "junior" is dropped...

Wow, I'm one post closer.