Temp gauge up and down

evegreen · Post by **evegreen** » 11 Oct 2010, 08:58

Yesterday when driving my temperature gauge went right into the red for no reason. I was two minutes from home so now it is parked. I had noticed a month or so ago that a whining seems to be coming from the serpentine belt, it had used up a lot of coolant in August and the air conditioning had stopped working. In the drive way this morning I turned it on and it is reving high and low and the temp gauge goes up and down with the revs. Car has 152,000 miles, please help.

Post by **jblackburn** » 11 Oct 2010, 09:47

The whining and fluctuating RPM sounds like it could be your alternator has gone. You can test the voltage on it to be sure.

At the same time, get up under it and see if the water pump is leaking. Or does the exhaust smell particularly sweet? It shouldn't be eating coolant unless it's either leaking somewhere, or the headgasket has developed a leak.

evegreen · Post by **evegreen** » 11 Oct 2010, 10:32

Thanks J, I had the battery tested and it's not charging, and fingers crossed that the coolant is tied to the heater core. I will keep you informed, Cheers.

Post by **misha** » 11 Oct 2010, 16:48

Your thermostat is probably stuck in the closed position causing the car to overheat.

If your temperature gauge is going up & down when engine is reving itself,then your ect(electronic coolant sensor) is bad.

Replace both of them,you can put aftermarket thermostat in your car,like Vernet,but your ect sensor MUST be the oem one if you don't want troubles.

evegreen · Post by **evegreen** » 18 Oct 2010, 08:33

Thanks for all your help, alternator and thermostat were changed and now running "normal" .

nwhitney · Post by **nwhitney** » 18 Oct 2010, 13:55

misha wrote:Your thermostat is probably stuck in the closed position causing the car to overheat.

If your temperature gauge is going up & down when engine is reving itself,then your ect(electronic coolant sensor) is bad.

Replace both of them,you can put aftermarket thermostat in your car,like Vernet,but your ect sensor MUST be the oem one if you don't want troubles.

Are you referring to the engine coolant temp sensor located under the thermostat housing or is this something different?

Post by **jblackburn** » 18 Oct 2010, 18:37

That's the one.