So today my temp guage was acting very screwy. Its a hot day out, in the high 80's with high humidty so of course I have my eye on the temp guage it rises up and down almost at will. When I stop it runs up way into the hot and when start it goes almost immediately back down into the cool, less than one half way up the guage. I wiggled the wires from the sender when I was out of the car and it seemed to work fine on the trip back. Any ideas folks?? I am about to make a long trip in the rex and wanted to know if this might be anything more serious than a scewy thermometer or temp guage. Thanks in advance.

Ben

 

bump

 

before I would take it on a long trip, i would remove and inspect: water pump, thermostat, temperature sensor, wires between sensor and meter.

remember that your coolant reaches its highes temps. about 10 minutes after the engine has been turned off. latent heat from the engine transfers to the coolant which isnt circulating any more. When ytou restart the car, coolant starts to recirc so the coolant in the engine flows to the radiator and the coolant in the radiator which has been cooling down returns to the engine. causes the needle to drop rather quickly.

 

wish I had time to do all of that, but its not in the cards
school makes me leave withing 24 hours of my last exam and that is tomorrow and I don't have the money to pay to stay here, mainly for food
the thing that weirds me out is even after the car has been sitting a long time the temp goes right to hot when I turn it on, after the car has been operating for a while the guage starts working correctly again

 

It might be the gauge itself, I changed the sender because it used to just quit working whenever it felt like it.