1998 Nissan Quest XE temperature issue

[joejohnston3]

Hi All,

I just purchased this Quest yesterday and while driving it home noticed the temp was peaking on full high. It did not smell hot nor did it give any lights on the dash. I was a couple minutes from home and when I got back I lifted the hood and nothing seemed hot or unusual. Coolant levels were normal. When I started the car this morning it was showing normal cold temp but as it warmed up it jumped to full high again and when I put the defroster on it dropped to normal temp range. Then after stopping again and restarting it jumped to high and even using the heater/defroster it did not drop down again. Very strange!!

Has anyone seen this before and can you give me any advice or direction to go for this issue? Thank you very much.

Joe

[joejohnston3]

Well, we replaced the coolant temp sensor as well as the thermostat but the gauge was still reading max hot and my mechanic stated it has to be the temp gauge that is faulty as the van is cooling fine. Funny to note that while driving home from his house which is 30 minutes away the van showed max heat up until 5 minutes from home then dropped in the middle of the range. A bad gauge can be a weird thing and glad it is not an overheating van!