Faulty temp gauge.

[Oldiebut goodie]

I didn't realize yours had a socket - so scrap the thought about over heating due to soldering.
Take it off and put a 12v source and ground to the correct terminals - with the writing facing you and the legs towards you, the left pin is 12v in, the middle pin and tab is ground and the right pin should read close to 10v. Multimeter on the ground/tab and output to test. (Just wondering if your pcb has been messed with and someone has bypassed the regulator but 11.7 is an odd voltage to get)
You may just have a duff chip!

[vlasnia]

I did wonder that myself because there are a couple stray wires that have obviously been added at some point. I'll try what you suggest re testing the chip and get back to you. Won't be till next week now though because I'm taking the bus on a trip to Anglesey tomorrow for a weeks camping. Just have to ignore the temp gauge and hope all is well in the back. Thanks for your help so far.

[vlasnia]

I've had a closer look at the pcb and the back of the temp gauge and can now see that two wires attached the the gauge disappear down into the guts of the dash and where the pcb plugs into the wiring loom some of the circuits are broken or damaged. It looks like, as you suggested, the gauge has been rewired, perhaps directly to the temp sender bypassing the voltage regulator. Do you think I should take those wires and connect them up to the volt reg. I've not had a chance to check the voltage coming from these yet.

[MidLifeCrisis]

Have you got (or can you get) any pictures of the wires, connections etc etc ??
Think it might help if folks can see what the thing looks like ....

[vlasnia]

I'll try and do that later today.