General question about temp gauge

[sbushnak]

Good day all,

I just have a question regarding the temperature reading difference between my car and my friend's Gen4 and Gen4.5 Camrys

My temp gauge is almost at the half mark, a hair below normal and has been that way the day I bought the car.

My friends own a 1999 2.2 Manual and a 2000 2.2 Auto. When I ride with them, their temperature gauge is about over the mid point between cold and normal. It never moves when the engine reaches normal operating temperature. Heat works fine and as far as i know, their engines never overheated.

The mileage on the 3 cars are almost the same.

I am curious on why the difference between temp. reading? TIA

[Camry LE 94]

Originally Posted by sbushnak

Good day all,

I just have a question regarding the temperature reading difference between my car and my friend's Gen4 and Gen4.5 Camrys

My temp gauge is almost at the half mark, a hair below normal and has been that way the day I bought the car.

My friends own a 1999 2.2 Manual and a 2000 2.2 Auto. When I ride with them, their temperature gauge is about over the mid point between cold and normal. It never moves when the engine reaches normal operating temperature. Heat works fine and as far as i know, their engines never overheated.

The mileage on the 3 cars are almost the same.

I am curious on why the difference between temp. reading? TIA

To be honest, I'm not exactly sure... However my guess is it has to do with the actual coolant your car uses and what ratio of coolant & water are used. My friend owns a 93 Saturn... and the car does well on highway trips. However, during city driving (stop & go traffic) the temperature exceeds the midway point, going up to right before the first red "caution" mark. His coolant smells pretty bad, although I'm not exactly sure what the difference between newer and older coolant is. Hope this helps

[sbushnak]

Originally Posted by Camry LE 94

To be honest, I'm not exactly sure... However my guess is it has to do with the actual coolant your car uses and what ratio of coolant & water are used. My friend owns a 93 Saturn... and the car does well on highway trips. However, during city driving (stop & go traffic) the temperature exceeds the midway point, going up to right before the first red "caution" mark. His coolant smells pretty bad, although I'm not exactly sure what the difference between newer and older coolant is. Hope this helps

Thanks for your reply. my 97 and my friend's have Peak 50/50 and my other friend's 99 has Toyota coolant.

[flyeri]

The guages are not calibrated as the speedo is. The temp sensor or some part of the instrument cluster may have been made by a different manufacturer canusing a slightly different reading. The fan blades could be different moving more air accross the radiator on one than the other. Mine reads slightly below half after it is warmed up. You just have to know when your guage is different than normal.

[96paseo]

The type of coolant your using won't affect the gauge reading. It boils down to two things. The resistance reading of your temperature sending unit at normal operating temperature and teh sensitivity of the gauge. When the resistance of the sending unit goes down, the gauge goes up. When your engine is cold, the resistance is high thus not allowing much voltage to flow which keeps your gauge reading cold.