im in maine right now, at night it gets to about 10-15 degrees. i drove home from VA for my spring break, and once i hit about new hampsire, i noticed my temperature gauge going crazy. it was reading about 1/8 to a 1/4 warm... i had already been driving for about 11 hours... so obviously the engine wasnt cold. was it because of the extreme drop in temperature that caused this? is this normal, anyone else have this problem? everything still ran fine (no boggyness or anything). thanks.

 

maybe ur thermostat may be stuck open? not sure...bump for an answer

 

The thermostat could be failing. I'd replace it, along with your radiator hoses, if you haven't in a while. Integra radiators are prone to failure around 100,000 miles (mine did, and so have many others) so a full cooling system overhaul may be something to think about.

 

i really dont know what happened here.

thinking scientifically, heat causes things to expand and cold causes them to shrink.

have u ever made the mistake of pouring boiling water into a cold glass? (it sounds stupid i know). the glass cracks and then shatters because it's shrinking and then suddenly its expanding.

im thinking the same thing may have happened with ur thermostat.

 

weird.... thanks for the replies. i kinda wanted to stay away from bringing it to my mechanic until summer time when i start making some better money... but it looks like i might have to. it literally dropped to less than an 1/8 warm. but this never happens in the warmer weather in VA, or the summer time when i'm back here in maine. it even gets to about 35-40 on bad nights in VA where i am, and the problem doesn't really happen then.

 

also one more thing... could the thermostat be the problem for any type of boggyness? even if it's fully warmed up. sometimes i get this problem...

 

Well, you have to look at other signs too. Are you losing coolant? Is the heat in your car blowing not as hot as before?

I would also say your thermostat is stuck open, that's what happens when they fail. Just pop open the housing and inspect it. If it needs to be replaced, they are less than $10 for a generic one.

 

You don't have to take it to a mechanic, it is really easy to swap in a new thermostat (two bolts), and I would definitely recommend an OEM Acura/Honda part. So take 15 minutes out of your day and swap in a new thermostat.

If the operating temp of the engine is too cold, the ecu will operate in open/closed loop, I forget which is which, but it will affect how the ecu runs the engine. If you have vtec, it might not engage either. Someone will know better than me, hope they post up.

 

I run a 98 GS-R in Maine and my temp has always been to the cool side. I bought the car in vermont two years ago and the previous owner stated that it always runs cool. Maybe elevation? I just think it's normal for my car, and maybe for your.

 

bad thermostat. these type of things go bad, and its a cheap/easy fix. and ya when the car isnt warmed up its in open loop using preset parameters, not reciving feedback from the 02 sensors, which can cause it to hesitate, or run somewhat poorly.