I've got a 98' w/a Manual trans.

I replaced the the water pump, hoses t-stat and radiator cap about 1-1/2 years ago due to a bad water pump.

The T-stat was a 185 degree unit however I replaced it with a 195 degree unit.

During the summer with the A/C on it usually runs right at 210.. however I've noticed it will regularly jump up to 1 tick over 210 when it's really hot out today it was 104 out.

Today on the way home the temp spiked to somewhere in the red... and the warning bell went off... I immediately turned off the A/C and turned the heater on full blast. The gauge quickly went back to between the 210 and the next mark up (where it would normally run).. I've seen the gauge do this before (after a hot re-start) however only once. I checked coolant level and the overflow bottle everything is normal. When I got home I notice my oil pressure read 0.. which I figure can't be right.. especially if it's sounds and runs normally.

So my question is are my gauges going bad or do I maybe have a bad connection on the back of the gauge cluster?

Is my Jeep running to hot or would you say this is normal operating temp for my situation?

I've never heard my fan clutch engage.. should I be replacing it?

Thanks for your help

I'm having somewhat similar issues. I have a 96 Cherokee classic that was running hot to the measure of shutting off in the low RPMs during the hotest summer days but ran fine all winter. It sat for a few years and when I started driving it again noticed that the coolant was filled with corrosion so I replaced the thermostat, radiator, hoses, water pump, AC Condenser (because I broke it taking it off), AC drier, Coolant temp sensor. When I reassembled it and filled it with coolant the gauge would spike when it hit hot air bubbles but then spiked and stayed there...its freaking me out.

I'm brand new to the forum so I'm having trouble figuring how to post questions and would appreciate if I could follow your thread to see if I can get any answers.

Just because your Jeep sounds good doesn't mean you have oil pressure. Verify with a mechanical gauge. If your mechanical gauge gives oil pressure despite what your factory gauge is saying, you've got a faulty factory gauge.

Or a bad oil pressure sender. They tend to fail on the low side to scare the crap out of you so you'll replace them.

Harbor Freight carries a decent mechanical oil pressure gauge for about $25.

Thanks for the posts guys I'll look into some new senders

You can always use an OBD solution VIA your phone with a device like the Actron UScan to see what the exact coolant temps are. But you definitely need to find out if the fan is working properly because that could definitely be your issue. When you replaced the water pump and tstat did you drain the engine block and flush the system?

Yes did a drain/flush of the entire system. Including the heater core.

Ok took it out this afternoon to pickup my daughter from school. It's about a 10miles round trip. Here's how my gauges read when I got home at idle in the driveway. Still very hot out today. 100 degrees plus.

I also took a temp reading with my IR temp gun on the t-stat housing.. the gun said it was 235 degrees. I know for sure my clutch fan is not engaging. So I think I will start with a new temp sender, clutch and possibly a new t-stat. P.S. Oil pressure is at 40 when at normal highway speed.. but drops down to here (see pic) when idling... Hopefully that's not an issue.. However it's definitely running hotter than I'd like.

It has been well over 100F here for a few months now and mine never gets above 210F on this stock gauge which is about 213F on the OBD scanner. The oil pressure is not an issue.

Thank you for the info.. I've got a new clutch on the way. Also a temp sensor. And was looking at the jeep yesterday and realized there's no fan shroud on it. Never had one. So I order one of those too. Hopefully I'm on my way to finding the problem.

Good luck man, I hope it fixes your issue. Good idea on getting the shroud, a cooling system is only as good as the the sum of it's properly working components.