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My tempature gage has been acting strangely lately.

Normally it hangs around the just slightly above middle mark.

But recently after starting and driving the car for about 5 minutes it will go almost all the way to the top however if I stop or slow down the temp reading will go down as well.

After driving for 10-15 minutes it will just stay at the normal spot.

I am not sure why it the Temp gage is show such high readings though in the first 5-10 minutes of starting up the car and driving.

Is it busted or something else going on there?

I noticed mostly today that the temp gage would begin to climb higher if I left the car in idle for a few minutes but if I started to drive again it would go down.

Is the car actually heating up when it is in idle or is the gage messed up?

Originally posted by Andrew_Pakula:
I noticed mostly today that the temp gage would begin to climb higher if I left the car in idle for a few minutes but if I started to drive again it would go down.

Is the car actually heating up when it is in idle or is the gage messed up?

hm thats a toughie. sounds like, according to your 2nd post, that the car is not getting coolant at idle and heating up the motor at idle and then getting some type of flow or vacuum pressure when driving.

i would bring the car to a pep boys or other shop to have checked out.

Check your thermostat. If the gauge is reacting to different driving conditions then its probably not the gauge but something wrong in your cooling system.

if you're thermostat is busted, your car may have been overheating from before (overheating busting the thermostat).. its happened to a friend before.

Same thing was happening to me, the thermostat was shot. Also found out the water pump was leaking.

Checking the coolant level would really be good. I do know that when it's getting low, your gauge climbs really fast stops a little ways above normal and then stablizes at normal.

I would suggest to check your coolant level..

Funny happen to me last winter.. There was a snow, a hell of a snowstorm, and my rad got freezed.. and the Temp went UP.. not enough cooling getting to the engine.. I remove the snow every 10 minutes, and it was ok, for another 10 minutes ;P

That was an hell of a 1 hour ride..

you could also check for cool spots in the radiator to see if some chambers are clogged. remember when your at idle no air is going threw the radiator so it gets hotter and when you drive air passes threw the rad and cools it down, i was having this problem with my rx7 before.

The temp gage seems to go up and down fast though when this starts happening. There is nothing gradual about it. Some times at idle it will stay at normal level as well too. Or when it is high at idle or low speed if I start driving again at decent speed it will like instantly drop down fast, there isn't a gradual drop, it changes with in a few seconds. How can the engine heat up and cool down so quickly?

with theengine cold, open the rad cap on the top of the engine by the intake manifold, check the coolant level there. if the coolant is full then I would say the temp sensor is bad.

UPDATE:

The coolant level was really low so I put in some more coolant and it seems to be normal again.

However I am still somewhat concerned because I never hear the fan going on.

my radiator is pissing me off. i think it's clogged or just loves stressing me out.