where on average does your eng. temp needle sit??

[futeki_s13]

well, on my recently purchased 89 coupe I noticed the needle sits alittle high,

it is deff. above half but not quite ( almost ) at 3/4 , I asked the p.o. and he said it has always been that way ( car has had verry good maintanence, w/ recent radiator flush )

but I am pretty sure it isn't normal for it to sit so high,what could cause this? clutch fan,broken thermostat, waterpump?

the p.o. drove the car from nebraska to mexico and back and didn't have any overheating problems the whole time, but It still isn't the way it should be..

any help is appriciated.

[vancouverbc]

Sellers always prevaricate.

[futeki_s13]

funny thing is,I bought this car from my best friend,and not only did I do 70% of the maintanence/ upgrades, I was also a passenger in the car more than 4 times a week,and was consulted for anything that happened with the car.

he isn't B.S.'ing

but thanks for the helpful post.

[vancouverbc]

I guess oil pressure and oil pump need to work well to keep engine cool.I would inspect the fan and water pump etc for problems.

[futeki_s13]

will do,thanks

[S0lid_Snake]

as far as i know the stock temperature gauge is a three position gauge, so it probably isnt as warm as it says

[vancouverbc]

as far as i know the stock temperature gauge is a three position gauge, so it probably isnt as warm as it says

I think it is a thermistor which would mean infinite positions. On the other hand, my gauge has alwasy been in the same position.

The panel display gauge only has a sensor. There is not thermostat connected with this sensor.

There is a second sensor(infinite, too) which feeds information to ecu. The ecu uses the info to control a bunch of things.

I think the thermostat is self-contained. It opens and closes depending on the temperature of water it is emersed in. It remains shut until the temperature reaches 76.5 C and i completely open at 90C. I think the thermostat is more prone to problems than the two sensors.

The thermostat has no connection to panel display gauge.

A thermostat is a valve that opens and closes according to the temperature it detects.

Modified by vancouverbc at 12:46 PM 11/2/2006
Modified by vancouverbc at 12:47 PM 11/2/2006

[onosqv]

on average, my eng temp needle sits right below the C... since it's off 90%+ of its life .

To be more helpful tho, perhaps it's the engine temp sensor itself on the intake mani that's old/bad? Could be giving you false readings, wouldn't hurt to take it out and clean it down w/ carb cleaner, had no idea mine was spose to be gold - took it out, it was blackish.

Does the needle go down if you turn on the defroster w/ heat on high (4)? If it does, then maybe it's something else... i.e. thermostat, coolant mix, small coolant leak causing bubbles in teh system, who knows...

[S0lid_Snake]

one of the sport compact car articles for the project silvia buildup states that the temp gauge is a three position, and all you have to do is change the gauge to get it to read any value

[s13redtaz]

mines a 91 coupe and since i ran full synthetic oil it sits a lil about 1.5-2 lines under half

[vancouverbc]

Mine sits at the third notch past C. Mine is infinite. It takes along time to get past C and then it gradually moves to third notch. I parked with engine off for about 20 minutes. When i restarted engine it jumped to second notch and then gradually moved to third notch.