I have a 98 accord and Afro some reason the thermometer gauge rises all the way up to hot like 30 seconds after starting the car up, any idea how to fix this? I don't think it's broken because it goes back down to cold when I turn it off

 

The short of its is: it could be bad gauge, short in wire to sensor, bad sensor.


Hope it helps

 

Any idea how I could check/ fix that?

 

Six or four cyl car?

When was the last time the t-stat was replaced?

 

a quick dirty test (not thorough by any means) for a short in the wire would be to unplug the wire from the gauge and see if the gauge still goes to hot.
You can test the sensor with a DMM.
The gauge will most likely be bad if both of them check out. the gauges go bad if the needle is pegged at the hot mark too long. It just messes them up.
Don't go just replacing parts figure out what you need then fix that.

for testing the sensor check out the attached document.
also check out this website http://techauto.awardspace.com/overh...ermoswitchtest