There's this little rectangular digital display directly under all of my gauges (tach, fuel, speed etc.) and I cant figure out what the heck it's for. There are 2 small nobs on either side of the display, one nob is for setting the clock, and one nob is for reseting the trip meter but what the heck is the number read out for? Some times is reads zero, and other times it goes up to 7 and I think it might have gone down to a negative number once but I don't quite remember.

My wishfull thinking is that it's linked to my cars horrible performance right now.

I think you're describing the typical half-functioning temperature gauge. Supposed to tell you what the outside air temperature is, based on a little metal probe in the front bumper.

Ken300D

It stayed at zero for the longest time and now that my car isn't running right it's been sitting at 7. It never dawned on me that it was a temp gauge, it should be displaying double digit numbers or maybe it's in celcius?

I think it is really two small LCD panels, or something like that. When working, its supposed to tell you the temperature - in USA cars it will be degrees F. If yours is like mine, the right-hand digit is unreadable, like an LCD gone bad. So I can tell what the temperature is in tens of degrees F. (It should display two digits and a +/- sign.)

When you find out the price to fix it is something like $450, you might decide just to live with it like I did. Maybe someday if I see a cheap instrument cluster on EBay - maybe........

Also, when you are sitting still in traffic the temperature will creep up because the sensor is getting heated by the engine.

Ken300D