[Peter Serio]

Those 2 pads post # 3 refers to are actually silver. Those turn black over time & will get to the point where it is just as if there were no resister in there at all! (Open circuit.) About once per every 25 or 30 years the resistors in behind those gauges need to be removed & cleaned also all of the attaching hardware that holds those in-place cleaned-replated and/or replaced.


On 2nd Gen Trans Am series cars there are a total of 4 resistors. One per each mounted in behind the gauges for: Oil pressure, coolant temperature, volts and fuel level. In order to access the resistor(s) that are for the oil pressure or coolant temperature gauge(s) the main instrument cluster housing needs to be removed from the dash. After that the printed circuit taken off of the backside to access the light blue plastic access panel. It is actually easier to remove the whole "twin" gauge section out of the center circle of that cluster to best clean and inspect those two.


Those can easily cause problems with the gauges if the touch pads are not clean enough to make contact. It is not common for those resistors to actually go bad but I have see a few that are open. Measure with an ohmmeter but not installed. (Remove from backside of gauge, then measure.)