Okay, it’s been doing this for awhile now (2 weeks), at first I thought it was actually running hot, but after this morning I have different thoughts –
I had to go to Auburn, AL this morning for a dentist appointment, I had no other choice but to drive my car, and it did it again, (PHOTOS),
What the heck would cause this? NO SMOKE, NO OTHER SIGNS OF OVERHEATING EXECPT FOR THIS GAUGE?
Thanks in advance for any help!
So the gauge or the temperature sensor is broken. I’d take it to a shop when warm and have it checked for the actual temperature and then diagnose what is actually wrong.
But driving when you don’t know if it was overheating or not was a bad idea that could have damaged the engine. Good Luck.
I agree with the assessment you received from @Mustangman.
I cannot add anything to his recommendation other than the fact that you wrote that you had to drive to “Auburn, AL” and I do not know how far that is but it implies it’s a distance and heading out anywhere on a trip, let alone to a doctor’s appointment with only 1/8th of a tank of gas is never a good idea… Reason: your mind in not on your driving and especially now that your car is acting up, it is all too easy to forget you need to probably get gas…
Side Note: I am a stickler for this. When my daughters were teenagers and when their dates showed up, I would check out their vehicles: at least a half tank of gas, no bald tires, the car had better be running smoothly, no sputtering or knocks… or they got to spend the evening in the family room eating popcorn and watching old movies… My daughters always told their dates the rules ahead of time and to expect an inspection… I was surprised how many even had freshly dumped ashtrays… L 
L . . .
I presume your Dodge Caliper is OBD II (1995+ model years). If so, you or your shop should be able to use a scan tool to easily see what the computer thinks the coolant temperature is. That’s where I’d start w/this sort of problem on an OBD II car. Just curious, I’ve never seen a gauge configured with a clear semicircle at the bottom. Is that the way it came from the factory?
Is there a coolant temperature warning light on the dashboard somewhere? Is it on? There’s one warning light on in the first photo, but I can’t tell what it is for.
Airbag error light.
A side note… I rented a Caliber once. Worst car I have ever rented. Just junk.
Same story. I rented one back in 2007 or maybe 2008, it was new, less than 300 miles on it, already had rattles. CVT was terrible, it was underpowered, interior was cheap even by cheap car standards, etc. The only redeeming thing about it was it returned 31 MPG, despite me flogging it up the mountains around Salt Lake City/Park City.
I can’t top that. I dated a lot of girls but never had my car inspected. I did go to school with agirl whose dad was a retired colonel. When I showed up for the 200 mile trip back to school, I was careful how the car looked. Didn’t want to anger him. Hit a snow storm and took us 8 hours for the trip but arrived safely.
I was a Chief Master Sergeant (E-9 – the highest Enlisted Ranks) and even a Colonel’s son knew better than give me any crap. You could say this “little dance” of mine ensured that the boys knew I was involved in my kid’s life and if they valued their life, they respected my girls…
Actually, I cannot claim to originate this… When I was 16 (1966), I was picking up my date at her home for the first time and her father answered the door and said she was not quite ready yet and he joked, “You know how girls are…” He glanced out at my '54 Dodge and he remarked, “Wow, that’s a nice one, do you mind if I take a look at her?” Well, he certainly turned my head and I wanted to show the car off. He asked if he could start her, and he turned on the radio, and he wanted to see the engine, and even asked to see how big the trunk was and I showed him.
Now, I’m starting to wonder if he’s ever seen a car before and about then my date shows up and her Dad sends us off. I asked my date about her Dad’s interest in my car and she told me that he wanted to check me out. How I cared for my car was a sure sign of self-respect, the cleanliness of the car, he started the car to hear that the engine was running properly and he could also check the gas gauge and he looked in the the glove box and trunk looking for stuff he did not want his daughter around like a bottle of liquor in the glove box, a case of beer in the trunk, etc… And my date told me I obviously passed…
But the world had changed a lot between my days of dating (where I always went to the door to get my date) and my daughters days of dating when their dates thought that blowing the horn was easier than ringing the door bell, so my dance was more direct…
For those who have never served, here is a bit of a joke to establish a Chief’s standing around any Air Force Base…
You had better run a least a 100 yards away if hear…
An Airman say, “I learned this in Basic Training…”
A lieutenant say “Based on my experience…”
Or a Chief Master Sergeant say, “This is going to be awesome. Watch this!”
Heh heh. Yeah you guys were scary. I remember my first weekend, Saturday morning, 8 sharp, ole bull dog first sarge les Larson comes out with his clip board and yells at us “all right fall in, you’re back in the army”. He was really a nice guy though but didn’t take any crap. At his funeral I told his wife and how much we respected him. Helped prepare us for basic. Yes sir no sir speak up son. That’s not a gun. Get your hands out of you pocket. Where’s your hat. We hadn’t been talked to like that for years and you were not late for roll call.
Electro-mechanical gauge failure: the problem is inside the instrument cluster. If the coolant temperature sensor failed, the check engine light would be illuminated.
You can drive to Auburn without a temperature gauge, grandpa won’t make you watch old movies.
The stepper motor behind the gauge failed, imo
There are lots of companies out there who will repair your cluster . . . by soldering in new stepper motors
IIRC, a now-departed forum member (OK4450) said the same thing, and I found his opinions to be trustworthy.
I’ve seen this happen to stepper motor gauges where they get overdriven and end up on the opposite side of the scale. The gauge is still working, it’s just oriented incorrectly. When the needles are ferrous metal, sometimes a strong magnet can be used to drag them back into the correct orientation. It’s at least worth a try…
That’s what I think as well. However, this begs the question, on the Dodge Caliber, is the odometer mileage stored in the cluster or the BCM? Older Chrysler vehicles with a digital odometer, such as the 1996-2000 Caravan/Voyager stored the odometer mileage in the BCM, and a used instrument cluster could be installed without programming anything, and without affecting the displayed mileage.
It is an interesting question if you can just go to a junkyard, buy a used instrument cluster, and install it, without needing to program anything.
Maybe that’s the first thing gauge repair companies try.
I’ve read on other chat boards of people drilling small holes in the plastic window to fish a small wire in there to push the needle back into position but I would never suggest that to someone else here. 
Personally, if the magnet didn’t work, I would take the gauge cluster out, remove the offending gauge and move the needle back into position. Then reinstall and test. I have taken a number of gauge clusters out and most of them came out without a lot of disassembly required to liberate them from the dash.
Sometimes smacking the dash works also… 
Definitely worth a try!
I knew a woman who owned one of the first-generation Audi TTs, and she had it back in the dealer’s service department on the first rainy day because her wipers wouldn’t work. They told her that it was fixed, but–guess what?–the wipers failed on the next rainy day.
I forget whether it was on her 2nd or her 3rd visit to the service department when the head mechanic showed her the exact spot on the dashboard on which she needed to pound if she wanted the wipers to work.
That’s how I fix my trans temp gauge! 
