Temp gauge readings

There are 2 sensors on this car. One for the gauge, and another for control. The control feed the PCM to control both rad fan and fuel injector pulse width based on coolant temp. It seems that is not that uncommon for the control sensor to go bad. Even though your gage goes up, it is possible the PCM always sees a cool engine temp.

This has been discussed at length here in the past. You can find it all in Google groups:

It's perfectly normal for the engine temp to get a hiar abouve the three quarter mark. At that point, the cooling fan kicks in until the temp is back down around the quarter mark. Your engine is going to heat up in traffic because there's no air hitting your radiator, cooling it down. If the cooling fan does NOT kick in when it starts to tip towards the very edge of the red, I'd suggest getting the cooling fan relay checked - it might be bad if you have to turn the fan on maually.

My 97's gage was like that when new, and then when a temp sensor was replaced the point where the fan kicks in is at the halfway mark. Whether it was the sensor alone or a PCM flash (updated EPROM programming) I don't remember.

Guys,

The radiator fan motor is a DC motor that uses brushes. It is a wear item! It's also a sealed motor (no brush replacement caps) so you have to simply replace the whole motor when it dies. While the relay can also wear out, this is far less common than fan motors wearing out.

So, if your temperature is going too high, check to see if the fan is working.

If the fan is not working, suspect the fan motor first.