Temp Gauge moves a lot, too much?

Thunderchumpy · Jul 17, 2014

Hi, apologies if this is a covered topic, but I can't find a thread that matches this.

I just bought a 95 Gl with the 3.8. It only has 39,800 miles. The temp gauge will hold at the "R" in NORMAL at freeway speed, but when I hit city traffic it creeps up, sometimes as far as the "L", not an overheat, but seemingly more than it should. The previous old lady owner had the radiator, water pump, all hoses and thermo replaced over the course of her owning it, and the service records all show that her complaint was the same scenario.

I hear that the gauges move quite a bit in Gen 2 bulls, but is this outside of normal? The coolant is a pretty green, and the system is full.

Thanks!

Jeff K · Jul 17, 2014

Thats normal. My 95 Vulcan does exactly the same thing. Ram air cooling on the freeway cools the coolant down to close to the thermostat opening temperature, but in stop and go traffic, there is no air flow over the radiator, and the coolant temp goes up until the cooling fan turns on at around 215 to 220 deg. If you run the AC, you will notice the temp gauge stays rock solid about 1/3 of the way up since the cooling fan is running.

Tom S · Jul 18, 2014

Also how my 91 works.

redhousenine · Jul 18, 2014

Wow... And I thought the 95-98 Contour/Mystique were the only ones that did that.

curiosul · Jul 18, 2014

I had one car that did that normally and two that did it because they had a bad HG. Ever since then, I'm very scared of moving temp needles. One test that eliminates a bad HG in 99.99% of the cases is this:

Wait for warm weather, warm the car, turn the A/C on, idle until you see the needle starting to go up. make a mental note of the needle's range (up/down), wait for the needle to start climbing and when it's in the middle of the "mental range", rev the engine to 2-3k. If the needle drops before reaching the top of the range, it's not good. If it doesn't ... congratulations! Compared to most other cars out there, you don't have a "dumb gauge".

My 2000 has a "dumb gauge" in which the needle reaches the middle point at around 80C/176F and doesn't move AT ALL until AT LEAST 104C/220F.

Thunderchumpy · Jul 18, 2014

Thanks everybody. I feel a lot better!

I'm very scared of moving temp needles.

Me too!

bull geek · Jul 18, 2014

Thats why Ford quit letting the needle move so much on the 96+. Too many complaints/annoyances from customers.

Temp Gauge moves a lot, too much?

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