First the fuel gauge, and now it'* the temp gauge that is starting to act up.

Started up the car at the office, noticed that the temp gauge was "all the way to the left."

When I got home, I turned off the car and then turned it accessory, it went to 200 degrees as expected!

So, great, looks like the temp gauge is now intermittent. Anyone seen this happen on their car?

As for the fuel gauge, at first I was thinking it was probably the fuel sender, but one thing I have noticed is that the gauge does not always return to the resting position (i.e. "all the way to the left") every time that I turn off the car. Has anyone who has had a fuel sender fail see this behavior?

probably just bad sensors/sending units. AND, the 87-99 bonnes fuel gauges are not supposed to return to 0, they're supposed to stay in place...most times they settle a little and then go back to normal reading when you turn on the ignition. I have no idea about the 00+ bonnes tho, but i imagine if its not going back maybe its the same design?

This may be an electrical issue starting up in the car. I would check the main ground to engine block (free) and the connector at the sensor before I buy and install the new one.

I believe the gas/temp gauges do return to a resting condition on the far left in the 00+ cars. The gauges "sweep" whenever you start up the car.

Where would I find the main ground? What should I check for, continuity I presume?

Surprised that no one else has had this happen (or perhaps hasn't seen this thread).

Here is what is interesting... when the gas gauge "incorrectly" reads empty, I don't get "check gauges" or "ding ding ding"

When I shut the car off last night, the temp gauge stayed at 70 degrees. When I drove to work, the gauge started out at 70 degrees and went to 270 degrees (it'* as if it started at the position where it left off). I shut off the car and the gauges went to resting position.

When I left the office today, both gauges didn't leave resting position. When I got home, I turned off the car, then turned it to accessory, and both gauges went to the right position.

I think this is going to drive me nuts. Perhaps I am too stupid to diagnose this and should just take the car to the dealer

i'm wondering if a dash problem isn't starting. I couldn't find anything circuit-wise that is common between the coolant temperature sensor and the fuel sensor. The coolant sensor just shows as a variable resistor (temperature dependant) between 2 ports on the PCM.

Excellent information, thank you! So perhaps a problem with the dash cluster or the wiring? Assuming that the PCM would also be the one to flag the "check gauges" light as opposed to the actual "gauge reading", do you concur?

That sounds reasonable. I want to do some more checking to see if there may be a common ground within the dash or instrument panel module for those two gauges.

Thanks, you ROCK!

Meanwhile I thought I would search for "cluster" in the 2000-2005 to see what I would find and some things did pop up

I'm going to try and reseat the dash cluster connection and see what happens

That sounds like a good plan. This is a link to the schematics for the gauges and indicators. Both of those, along with others, appear to be driven by the logic circuit from the serial data bus. Electrical Diagrams