i have notice after a long drive that the temp gauge hadnt moved ive got a series 3 petrol and dont no anything about this sought of thing so can anyone tell me or point me in the right direction wot needs replacing or wot needs doing thanks

you mean not reading at all or sitting happily in the middle ,if the first short wire on the switch to earth see if guage goes to max

no it just sits at the bottom of the gauge sorry didnt expain it well

try earthing wire first , check wire has voltage if not remove dash guage is fed from voltage stabiliser is there power at guage in/out if not is there at stabiliser in/out

If the petrol guage is also not working it may just be a bad contact in the fuse - try jiggling them a bit. This has happened to me a couple of times.

my series 3 diesel at this time of year sits at bottom of guage unless going up a long hill where it will lazily lifts off the bottom for a while. This is because my thermostat is stuck open (hope to replace it soon).
- just another option to consider:bounce:

Does sound like a loose wire / duff connection in the wiring.

One other thing that causes a problem with instruments sometimes is the voltage regulator which is attached to the back of the speedo - although my experience is that it caused the opposite problem (ie. instrument needles just went to the top of their respective readings) It's a fairly cheap part. Worth trying replacing if you've checked the rest of the wirng back there and not found an obvious fault - but do check the other stuff first.

You say you don't know much about this sort of thing but I'm not clear what level of knowledge that implies. Are you able to find where the temp sensor is and are you OK with removing the instrument panel and checking around in there.

When I first got my series 3 petrol I was surprised by quite how long it took to warm up to the point where the needle moved off the bottom of the gauge. Think I was too used to modern cars with fancy alloy engine blocks.

Personally I'd suggest whipping out the temperature sender and checking it's condition. If it looks crappy then replace it, if not put it back and start playing with the electrics.

Take the bit of wire off the sender and short it to earth on the block. If your gauge reads hot, it is probably only the sender that needs changing.