Is This Normal ??

[Noxidea]

Ok So i goto Massachussetts every week on either saturday night or sunday til Monday , anyways its about a 2 hours ride from here and tonight for some reason i happen to glance at the Temp Guage and it Was as if the car wasnt running to i thought shit my guage is broken , so i was all bent and aggrivated the whole ride tested the heat worked fine tried getting on the gas a little and nothing moved so I Concluded the guage is Junk , Well what do u know i pull of the highway and it still doesnt work im checkin now at every red light i get to the store to grab a bottle of soda "adiction" and I leacve the car running cause my girl and son are in it anyways , come out the store and the guage is reading a normal little less than half way like it should , seems the guage was working fine but is it honestly possible that my car was getting that much cold air onto the motor that it was running that much colder ?? or is it a cold ass breeze on the sensor and it reads cold even though the motor is hott ??? I'm confused with this , anyone else exsperience this let me know if it is normal .
Thanks
-Sean- Noxidea

PS .... It was Cold as a Witches Tit Out There Tonight But ,,,,,,, ?

[starchland]

I would look into your thermostat. Someone with more experience on coolling will help out. However, from my experiences, whenever its relatively cold out, lets say minus -1 Celcius and the car is fully warmed up, and then ill drive really hard for a few minutes, the gauge dips down quite a bit, I think from the cold air hitting the radiator.

[F22-GURU]

I'm not sure if you have noticed but the temp gauges on the accords tend not to move in relation to varying coolant temps. They normally sit on COLD until the engine reaches N.O.T, then they sit steady between COLD & 1/2 Way and when the coolant overheats the gauge goes straight to HOT.

IMPO I'd be inclined to say that the "Temp Gauge Sender Unit" at the back of the head was registering COLD due to the Extremely Low Ambient Air Flow while driving. When you pulled up the lack of cold air flow allowed the coolant to reach N.O.T again, hence the sender unit allowing the Temp Gauge to read normal again.
So I wouldn't be too concerned about it mate!!

If you want to check the Temp Gauge operation, With Ignition ON, Engine NOT Running, remove the Wire from Coolant Temp Sender Unit (Unit "C" in image) and using a Long Jumper Wire (with Alligator clips at either end), momentarily ground it against the body and observe the Dash Temp Gauge, If the Gauge shoots up to HOT, then the Gauge is OK.
If the Gauge doesn't move then it's cactus.

Hope this helps, so please don't yell at me like 'bigbutts' did!!

[homegrown_xt]

I have run into this before and it was a bad t-stat. After I replaced it, it has been fine.

[wrichards2005]

I'm not sure if you have noticed but the temp gauges on the accords tend not to move in relation to varying coolant temps. They normally sit on COLD until the engine reaches N.O.T, then they sit steady between COLD & 1/2 Way and when the coolant overheats the gauge goes straight to HOT.

IMPO I'd be inclined to say that the "Temp Gauge Sender Unit" at the back of the head was registering COLD due to the Extremely Low Ambient Air Flow while driving. When you pulled up the lack of cold air flow allowed the coolant to reach N.O.T again, hence the sender unit allowing the Temp Gauge to read normal again.
So I wouldn't be too concerned about it mate!!

If you want to check the Temp Gauge operation, With Ignition ON, Engine NOT Running, remove the Wire from Coolant Temp Sender Unit (Unit "C" in image) and using a Long Jumper Wire (with Alligator clips at either end), momentarily ground it against the body and observe the Dash Temp Gauge, If the Gauge shoots up to HOT, then the Gauge is OK.
If the Gauge doesn't move then it's cactus.

Hope this helps, so please don't yell at me like 'bigbutts' did!!

Good call, if your car is taking a LOOONG time to heat up, or overheating a lot, its probably the thermostat (but could be the water pump, only if its overheating though), but if the heater is working as normal, I'd have to believe sender unit as well. But cold wind won't do anything to make the temp gauge off because the sensor is internal. It will make your engine heat up a little bit slower though. When its THAT cold you should fully warm the car up before you drive anyway.

[shadow_builder]

OK this is similar to my question. I have the 93 SE and previously had the 92 LX. In my LX the car would warm up pretty quick and never overheat and the heater worked great. Now in my SE it takes a little longer to warm up, the heater doesn't heat up very fast, in fact it's SLOW..and I noticed the temp gauge doesn't move unless I've pretty much just raced someone. Even then it only goes to about 1/4 and goes back down to the "C". Thermostat, heater core, gauge broke or a combo?

[sj960]

sounds like the tstat is stuck open.... my gauge reads accurately (I beleive it does), as it warms up it slowly goes to halfway and i overheated once due to a bad heater core hose.... it didnt shoot right to hot, i noticed it progressively getting hotter and hotter...

[shadow_builder]

So do I just replace the thermostat?

[sj960]

So do I just replace the thermostat?

It's cheap enough, I don't see why not....
If you want to test it, just put it in some water and heat the water up and around 190* the tstat should open