Just replaced my radiator after the old one broke. I was driving on the freeway when I noticed that the temperature needle was all the way over on "hot." I pulled over, etc... long story short; the radiator was busted.

With this new radiator however, the temperature needle never moves very far. In other words, the engine (supposedly) does not get nearly as hot as it used to. Is this normal? My temperature gauge, after driving for 15 minutes on the freeway will show as:


Is this normal? I assume a bad radiator will not cool the engine as effectively as a new one. With the old radiator, before it completely broke, the needle would barely touch the little icon in the middle.

 

the temp should be regulated by the thermostat, assuming you dont see any wacky movements on that gauge indicating that the tstat is stuck (gauge dropping and rising rapidly) then yes that would be considered normal temp.

 

try replacing your thermostat and rebleeding your coolant system

 

Mine does the same when driving on the freeway and its the original radiator but when i run it just in idle it will move up after about 15 minutes then going back on the freeway after it lowers the temp back down

 

It just stays really low all the time with me. If it really does keep the engine that cool then that is obviously fine with me. I'll take a look at the thermostat though. Don't want the engine to overheat all of a sudden.

 

Running that cool shouldn't be "obviously fine" with you. Engines are designed to operate within a set temperature range for a reason, cooler doesn't equal better.

x2 to the suggestion of replacing your thermostat and re-bleeding the system.