PSUR1

I've been seeing some horrible readings on my stock temp gauge(rising almost to redline) and my PFC is reading between 120 and 135C at times. Obviously this is not a good thing, and I have not been driving much or very hard. The weird thing is, the temp will skyrocket when I get on it, then will drop back down in a matter of seconds when I let off the gas. (This happens on stock gauge, temp seems to stay high on PFC) I'm thinking that these readings are bogus and there is something wrong with the thermostat, but I'm not sure. Any thoughts??? BTW, this happened after I was forced to have a Mazda dealership install my Fluidyne radiator (car was stuck there with cracked stock rad), which is right around the time a big *** scratch and crappy touch up job appeared on my rear passenger side

Nathan Kwok

I would definitely check the thermostat. Since you have a new radiator, that's not the problem. Low oil and low coolant are also possible culprits. However, if the PFC registered 135, thats 270F. If that was indeed the true temp, your coolant would totally boil over, and it is doubtful your engine would still be running. This leads me to suspect the sender. Both the PFC and the stock gauge use the same sender, so one idea is to install an aftermarket gauge. I have seen my gauge go haywire, once. I got in the car (it was still warm, but not particularly hot), and turned on the accessory power. The low coolant light went off and the gauge shot up to almost the red. This is BEFORE I started the car. I then started the car and the light went off, and the gauge immediately went back to below horizontal. It hasn't happened again.

PSUR1

If it is just the thermostat, do I need to worry about problems this would cause? I'm leaving to drive across the country this Friday, and the last thing I need is for my engine to overheat and blow in Oklahoma or something like that. If its just a matter of the seeing bad numbers but not having to worry about any damage, then I'll just get it fixed when I get back to PA.