The needle in temperature gauge never goes above the middle. Just never! I mean sometimes I drive the car really hard but I've never seen the gauge to show anything above the middle.

I've checked gauge itself - works fine. So I guess something is wrong with temperature sending unit. Anybody ever replaced it? Does it make sense to take it out and test it first before buying a new one?
What do you think guys?

 

It's called keeping the people calm, but it's having opposite effect on you. Car makers do that so that people don't freak out when the temperature fluxuates around, or goes up for a while. There are tests you can do on the sending unit itself, but I'm sure it's probably okay. It used to worry me for a while, but now I know that's just the way it is. It's even the same way among my old G20, '90 GXE, and '92 SE now, it rises up and sits directly smack in the middle.

Oh, to clarify: I'm talking lug the car in 4th/5th over a mountain range in July and none of them ever went above center.

 

Should be a little below middle - that's normal operating temp. If it's actually dead center on middle then it's probably because you are pushing the vehicle hard.

I dunno that's my theory on it. Who knows though.

 

run straight water in your cooling system, then the needle on the temp gauge will go above the center of the gauge. mine went 3/4 of the way up before I shut off the car and found my coolant resivour was boiling.

 

you see guys mine never even hitts the middle mark


its always on the "c" mark



but then again i had a leak on my top radiator hose then it went all they way up.



also one time i was stuck in traffic like in 90 degrees weather and i over heated and my temp gauge worked it showed me it worked it rose up till the middle mark then went over lol




but like in regular drving condition it dosent even hitt the middle mark so im just like wtf do i need to rip out my dash to check if theres a bad connection.

 

i dont know why you guys didnt reccomend this, i might be a dummy, but what about the thermostat? my temp...looked like a fire house, but it was just the thermometer.

 

Just as interesting point:
Most cars run a 195 -200 t-stat
The max runs a 170-175 O.E.

 

mine stays a bit below center all the time. but when the water pump went it climbed up fast !

 

Thanks for the replies guys.
So I take it this is a normal behaviour for the water temperature gauge and nothing to worry about.

 

100% correct

 

yeah mine stays little below the middle and it think its really different from other cars no matter how long or hard i drive it stays there but am cool with it not worried at all