help with temp gauge...

[B6driver]

I'm not sure how long its been going on, but I really just noticed it today... My temperature gauge gets pretty erratic at times. During a 30 min drive, the gauge malfunctioned for about 1 minute.

symptoms:
gauge goes from middle to C and everywhere in between in a second or less... it just keeps fluctuating like crazy then it returns to normal. As for performance, I don't feel any change...

my amateur diagnosis:
faulty temp sensor, or (god forbid) faulty thermostat.

where would be our temp sensor be located and whats the best way to test it?

[mrm1682]

i had the same problem but i also had a coolant leak from the rear coolant flange. i replaced the flange and swapped out the coolant sensor since i was there already and now the temp gauge is steady at normal all the time. if that doesn't fix the problem, it could be the instrument cluster since they are notorious for having problems as well.