Why my temp gauge does not get to the middle?

[amcink]

My temp gauge does not get to the middle. So i do not know of the car is running hot or not.

[dnguyen1963]

Where is it at? You buy yourself an IR themometer at HF and check the engine temp.

[ELVA164]

I've heard of many E30s running just below the center of the gauge and some a little above the 1/4 mark, neither of which is an issue.

[ZM Blue Devil]

which termostat do you have?

[amcink]

88c

[ak-]

Either:
1. Your thermostat is stuck open/broken and forevercooling your motor.
2. You actually have an 80c thermo (or whatever the lower one is).
3. Your temp gauge sensor (the brown plug on the thermo housing, not blue) is poopoo.
4. Temp gauge itself is busted (doubt it)

I don't think you're overheating. The worst outcome of the scenario is getting worse gas mileage and possibly less power.

[dnguyen1963]

You should also check your SI board/batteries. Many of the temp gauge problems are due to bad SI board/batteries.

[amcink]

Either:
1. Your thermostat is stuck open/broken and forevercooling your motor. This is new so I doubt
2. You actually have an 80c thermo (or whatever the lower one is). This is possible I will check my purchase order. It was about 6 month ago
3. Your temp gauge sensor (the brown plug on the thermo housing, not blue) is poopoo. I feel this could be the culprit
4. Temp gauge itself is busted (doubt it) Doubt it but will check the batteries as
mention on the post above

[mitchlevy7]

bad ground on the back of the gauge can mess it up. mine read really wacky and sometimes even waved hi to me.
tightened and cleaned up that nut on the back of the gauge and it behaved/read normal.

[amcink]

bad ground on the back of the gauge can mess it up. mine read really wacky and sometimes even waved hi to me.
tightened and cleaned up that nut on the back of the gauge and it behaved/read normal.

You are into something since my gas gauge at times did not marked correctly and i need to push the back of it to make the needle move and mark the correct gas. It stopped doing it for sometime now. I will apply pressure on the back of the temp gauge maybe it will work.

[rodpaine]

Use of an IR temp meter will quickly confirm what's going on as shown here.
FWIW,
-Rod

[ak-]

What is normal operating temperature btw? (Middle actaully)