I was driving my dads 95 GXE Auto today, and the temperature gauge needle has always taken some time to get to the middle of the gauge. He only drives 10 miles a day, so I really havent bothered to fix it. however today we went on an 80 mile trip (40 going+coming). On the way back, throughout the whole 40 miles on the freeway the gauge stayed between 1/4 and 1/3 the way up. When I took the exit to get too my house, the gauge started going up after about 2 miles of street driving. And finally when I was almost home, it was at the halfway mark.
So does this mean that the thermostat needs to be changed?? Or is it the water pump??? I drained and refilled the coolant about 4 months ago, and the coolant is in good shape. And even with the A/C on, the needle has not gone above the halfway mark (I guess thats a good thing). And the fans work ok.

 

thats a sign of a faulty thermostat.

I belive its stuck open so coolant is always flowing even when its cold, so it takes for ever for it to heat up. Proper thermostat would stay closed when you first start up so that the car can heat up, then thermo open so the coolant can flow and keep the car cool at that proper temperature.

I'm assuming it will throw you a code soon. but changing it isnt that difficult just a tight space.

 

Do I need some type of machine to read codes on this car?? (95 GXE)

 

sounds like everything is fine. At normal operating temp. the needle doesn't sit right at the half way mark, it sits just below it.
if your cooling fans shut on and off like they should, you have nothing to worry about.