Temperature gauge spiked while stopped at a red light – what’s going on?
I had just driven about 20 miles on a free way on a moderately hot day with nothing out of the ordinary going on. Stopped at a red light when I suddenly heard a warning ping and saw that the temperature warning light was on. I then looked at the temperature gauge which was nearly topped out up at the red “H”. Immediately started to think about how I could get off the road when the traffic light turned green and I went. As soon as I started moving the temperature needle suddenly drops down to the normal range - like in less than 1 second. What could that mean? I seriously doubt it was accurately showing the actual temperature of the engine. Do I have a bad temperature gauge? Could this mean something else?
Vehicle is a 2005 Dodge Stratus
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Nothing to be too concerned about. That's normally an indication that your coolant level is low.
You need to top off the coolant ASAP.
Now, you need to find out why your coolant is low.
If you recently had some work done on your cooling system, you could possibly have air in your cooling system which would produce the symptoms you've described.
Another very likely possibility is that you've got a pinhole leak that only causes leakage to occur when the engine is at operating temperature and pressure.
What can happen is that, under pressure, a pinhole leak can appear. Pinhole leaks will spew out and evaporate before leaving any trace. They can drive you nuts to find.
Best to get your vehicle to operating temperature, then do a thorough visual inspection (with the engine running) to see if you can detect a leak such as this.
An alternative to that would be to pressurize your cooling system with a pump and check for leaks.
Most auto parts stores will rent you a pump for this purpose.
If you need to bleed air out of your system, refer to the link below.
Best of luck.
Check for a blown fuse or bad relay to the cooling system fan. The lack if air flow through the radiator at a stop light will let an engine heat up and then when you get moving again, the airflow resumes. The passage of air through the radiator will pull heat out again dropping the temp to a safe range....
I easily have a 2004 Caviler and it does a similar undertaking via fact until the A/C is on the cooling fan would not kick in until the coolant temperature reaches 212 that's approximately 3/4 of how throughout the time of the coolant temperature guage's selection. it quite is usual, the temperature drops while the motor vehicle is shifting via larger air circulate throughout the time of the radiator. If the fan would not kick in then you definately the two have a foul fan motor, relay or temperature sensing unit.
Most likely a bad radiator cooling fan, bad fan relay, or bad temp sending unit. Chryslers are known for bad fan relays. At highway speed you're getting ram air through radiator. At stop it depends totally on radiator fan.
staph... is pretty much right your thermostat may also be messing up check the temp send unit have your antifreeze checked to make sure its good enough to keep your engine cool if not replace your getting flow sinnce at speed your fine, your gauge maybe goin bad or your fans maybe bad also the fan clutch could be bad
Could be what the first responder indicated. Another thing could be a stuck thermostat or intermitten waterpump.
sounds like a dodgey temp gauge or wiring to it unless someone tipped liquid nitrogen on your boiling engine which is highly unlikely