Hi, I was curious to see what other people were seeing for temperature on their gauges. Mine reads about a 1/4 into the normal range and I seem to have plenty of heat but never gets toward the mid-range of normal. Is this normal? I have a windstar with a similar gauge and it always goes to the center when at operating temperature. Thanks

 

My 92 5.8L goes to straight up once its warmed up.

Before I changed the thermostat, I was lucky to get past the N in normal.

-Chris

 

My temp gauge will go straight up (halfway) then when the thermostat opens it will drop down to about 1/4 of the way then works itself back to straight up again. Sounds like you might have a low temp thermostat that opens early or it is malfunctioning and opening too soon.

GradyJ

 

don't read too much into the factory gauge as they are very inaccurate at best. Just use it as a rough estimate.

 

While it may not be accurate, since there is no number associated to it on the gauge, it should be consistent everytime you drive the truck.

Now, over time, they do start to fail but only cost about 8 bucks to replace the gauge sensor.

-Chris

 

I replaced the thermostat and the one that was in the truck was a ford oem part with a temp of 192. I replaced it with one I picked up from autozone that was a 195. After replacing the thermostat I still only go up to the N in normal. The temp rises and falls like the thermostat is working properly. I guess this must be the normal operating temp of my engine. Thanks for the replies.

 

It is very possible that the small temp sensor is dying.
The part costs under $10 and is easy to replace if you even care that much

-Chris