Temperature Gauge-Overheating?

[Ken Roberts]

We took my wife's '99 Aurora on it's first road trip since purchaing it a little over a month ago. It performed well, but I have a question on the temperature gauge. It stays right on the mark, a little under 200 degrees, I figure it's at 180. We got into a traffic jam for maybe 20 minutes on an interstate and it went up to 200 degrees. Cooled back down afer we passed the jam. Outside temp about 70. Today, at home, I made a short stop, about 5 minutes, came out and when I started up, it was at the 200 mark. Once again, it went down when I drove it. 50 degrees outside.
I've had many cars and I understand the heating and cooling system, but I never had a car do this, and am wondering what what we could run into when summer comes! Is this an issue?
The car has 62,000 miles on it. The anti-freeze looks good, don't know if it was ever changed.
Thanks for your help.

[apollo7879]

I have a '96 aurora (bought new). The temp gage in my car has always operated exactly as you have described.

In heavy stop & go traffic in hot weather you will see it climb even higher,enough to make you nervous. The suprising thing is that the cooling fans do not even kick in until about 210-215 degrees.The fans are always on with the A/C running I believe.

I have changed the coolant & thermostat with no change in operating temp. Car has 78k miles

[treeboy38]

Don't worry, the temps you are getting are perfecly normal for this car. As long as it doesn't go into the red you will be fine. With no real opening for air flow, you have to really be moving for this car to cool.

If you don't think the coolant has never been changed then you might want to look into changing it. It's a very easy DIY job and it is good to get fresh coolant in there every couple years.

[oldsdad]

The all aluminum blocks of these cars heat up very fast and cool off fast compared to the cast steel blocks of other cars. The motors in these cars takes up ALL of the engine compartment and there isnt much room for air flow around them as compared to most any other vehicle so they tend to run a little hot. Here in Georgia with summer temps in the low 100s and high humidity if I am sitting at a drive thru window waiting for any length of time my temps on my 96 will go to 205-210 but drop right back down after driving for a couple of mins. I have had my car for a little over 2 yrs now and the first summer it ran 210 or over all the time so I changed out the thermostat and coolant and now run at 180 80% of the time.If you decide to change your coolant remember to use distilled water not tap water.

[Ken Roberts]

Originally Posted by oldsdad

The all aluminum blocks of these cars heat up very fast and cool off fast compared to the cast steel blocks of other cars. The motors in these cars takes up ALL of the engine compartment and there isnt much room for air flow around them as compared to most any other vehicle so they tend to run a little hot. Here in Georgia with summer temps in the low 100s and high humidity if I am sitting at a drive thru window waiting for any length of time my temps on my 96 will go to 205-210 but drop right back down after driving for a couple of mins. I have had my car for a little over 2 yrs now and the first summer it ran 210 or over all the time so I changed out the thermostat and coolant and now run at 180 80% of the time.If you decide to change your coolant remember to use distilled water not tap water.

The help and information is greatly appreciated. Thanks to all.
Ken

[The Rebel]

Yeah, Thats that Southern hospitality!
right on Oldsdad! Just remember never let the car go into the RED.
If your on the road, and this should happen to you ( almost touching the red) turn the car off BUT, don't lock the steering wheel and coast to an area of safety. Then a few minutes start up again, get going up to the speed limit, then turn car off again and coast. This gets you OFF the road and able to get help.