So one day it stopped working (the temp meter) and the other day I decided to try and fix it so I swapped in a known good sensor and that didn't fix it. Then I cleaned the connector and grounded it out. When I turned the key to the on position the needle went down farther than when the car was off (when I turned the car off the needle came back up). Does that make sense? It is like the polarity is switched...also after cleaning and putting in a known good sensor the meter still does not work. Is it a bad cluster then?

 

I fiddled with the wiring some more but got nowhere, anybody have a recommendation?

 

i would say broken wire. if you have a spare cluster to borrow try it.