[s-cars] Temp Gauge

[Brian Powell]

Cody, my S6 temp gauge is spot on; however, my 20v does exactly what
yours does (they both use the same 3 barb MFTS, I believe).

When does your heater kick on?  Is it nice, hot air?  If the heater and
thermoswitch both act normal, then, I doubt it is your thermostat as
they respond to coolant temp as well.

In my 20v, the heater runs very nicely and quite hot even though the
gauge isn't even 1/3 of the way toward "normal."  When I sit in
traffic, the temp gauge goes past "normal," and, as soon as I am on the
highway, it drops to less than half.  Even when it is at half, if I
stop at a light, the radiator fan kicks in (as controlled by the
thermoswitch).  Thusly, in my case, the MFTS has gone bad (which those
damn things seem to do every 2 years or so).  Occasionally, my gauge
will just drop out to zero in the middle of driving as well...

I believe that there is a code on our climate control that returns the
coolant temperature (using a different sensor than the MFTS).  You
might try pulling that up and comparing with what your gauge is reading.

Cheers,
Brian