Recently, my car's been staying cooler than I would have thought. Even in South GA's hot days, the needle is only going about 1/8 to 1/4 inch past the low indicator. My fan is on all the time now, so I was thinking my fan clutch was going bad. I removed the fan and drove the car around the neighborhood and down the main street about 4 miles. During this time, the temp was still pretty low, which is understandable since at speed, the fan doesn't do much. Only when I got back home and parked the car did I see the needle move a little bit (after about 20 seconds of sitting). I turned the car off when I saw this.

There is really nothing in the engine bay, most everything is removed except the carb, radiator, alternator, and oil cooler.

I've got autometer gauges for water and oil temp going in soon. Hopefully that'll let me know if anything is really off.

Any suggestions or should everything be ok and I should just get over my paranoia?

Thanks in advance.

 

Thermostat may be stuck open. Does it take a long time to warm up? I wouldn't worry much until you get a reading from an aftermarket gauge.

 

Yeah, the normal operating temp. on the gauge seems to be way down low on most first gens. I have a new rad, thermostat, coolant flush, electric fan, and temp sensor and the gauge reads just between 1/5 and 1/4 of the way up under normal operating conditions. I am getting oil and coolant temp. gauges just because though.

 

Another update. I put the fan back on since I needed to drive a while today. Again, the temp was just barely past the low mark. I parked with the car on for about 5 minutes today and when I got back, the temp needle was "normal" to what it should be. However, when I started driving again, it dropped back to barely past the low. Damn I need to get my gauges on ASAP. I'm still confused and paranoid.

 

Don't panic, running a little low on temp is better than too hot. The stock gauges aren't perfectly accurate, but usually run about the 1/4 mark of needle travel. If it ran higher before on a regular basis, something has changed. I begin to worry when the needle gets to the 1/2 way mark, that is the beginnng of them running too warm and the needle can go up quickly from there if there are any other issues.

 

Thanks, I'll calm down a little then. The needle is definitely no way near middle. I'll be more quantitative once the gauges are in....

 

With things a little cooler, should I still stick with 20W50 or go to another viscosity oil?

 

try replacing the thermostat......Mine had the same prob, someone put some generic one on there that was always open, you'd really notice it on the cold days....Be sure the one you get is for the Rx-7 specifically.

 

I use 20W-50 anyways lol.