I recently replaced the check engine bulb in the instrument cluster, and after putting the cluster back in the temp gauge is stuck on hot. If i push in on the plastic near the top or to the right of the gauge it returns back to normal, but just sitting even with the car off and key out the needle is still stuck at HOT.
I'm guessing i could've messed something up when pulling the cluster out or putting it back in, but i'm not sure what to do now. Anyone have any ideas?

 

Welcome to the forum. It sounds like there's a short inside the IPC. The gauge measures the voltage drop across the ECTS, the higher the temperature, the lower the voltage drop. So, a short to ground would read the maximum temperature.

 

No that's not it. there isn't a short it's a problem with the gauge itself. If you read above I can push on the plastic above the gauge and the needle moves back to the correct temp. The problem seems to be that the needle was pushed too far right and got offset. I just now took the plastic bezel off and physically moved the needle past the 100 and heard and felt it click back into the proper offset. This seems to have done the trick, I'm sitting here now watching it slowly heat up so I think I'm good. I'll keep updating if anything else happens