94 GSR, runs fine, steady idle, good power, no known leaks.

Driving in stop/go traffic today, I step on the gas, the car picks up just fine. As I lift off the gas, the temp gauge woooooooooooooop shoots up to H. WTF? I push in the clutch as I'm ready to come to a stop, and IMMEDIATELY the guage goes back to normal. This repeats over and over. Aside from the wacky temp guage, the car shows no sign of overheating.

Strange.

This just started happening after I changed my clutch as well as my cap/rotor. I'm thinking I messed up the collant temp sensor while I was in that area, or that I unhooked it somehow... But I looked in the area and all the plugs seem to be securely fastened...

Can anyone lend some insight here? How do I verify the operation of this sensor?

Thanks.

 

Air bubble in your cooling system, try bleeding.

 

air bubble could cause the wild fluctuation I described?

 

so when engine rpm is increased temp goes up>?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by rockofcali &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">so when engine rpm is increased temp goes up&gt;?</TD></TR></TABLE>

No, it's almost the reverse but now Sam's got me thinking -

It goes like this:
1) temp is normal
2) I step on gas, car goes good, the needle might jiggle a little (which it never used to do)
3) I lift on gas, car lurches forward as it slows (since clutch is grabbing), temp shoots up to H.
4) I release the clutch, temp goes right back to normal.

So anyway Sam's got me thinking - what if there's a bubble in the system and the bubble is passing over the sensor as the car lurches forward/back? That could explain it...

I'm gonna have to try bleeding...

 

that sounds weird lol i was thinkin maybe ur thermostat was stuck open or messed up cuz as rpm is increased ur water pump rpm increases resulting in ur coolant not haveing enough time in radiator to cool then at idle speed temp goes bak to normal

 

since the gsr motor doesnt have a bleeder valve i found that its easiest to lift the front fo the car in the air and fill the radiator witht he car running at normal operating temperature. it burps the air out. i had a problem like yours until i filled it witht he car up in the air

 

update: definitely not an aire in the system issue. THis morning I got up and the car would not start at all. Something is definitely draining the battery. When I jumped it, the temp gauge went way up within a minute or two. So, I had to swallow my pride and take it to the shop We'll see what the mechanic says later today.

 

Would you believe it was a loose ground on the main battery cable? Not the end that connects to the battery but the other? Anyway that was it and now the car is back to normal.