MX-3.com

Just wondering... my gauge on my k8 mx3 seems to read a little high... i would say it reads in the 65-70% ish range of the temp. gauge. The car seems to not everheat at all and the fans come on and off like normal... the coolant level is fine as well.


I remember a buddy of mine has a 1st gen Miata and his temp gauge also read on the hotter side of the gauge but the engine seemed to run at a normal temp...

Just wondering where everyone elses temp gauges read....... and if this is normal for older mazda's.

well on my mx3's the needle sits right in the middle.
my gs-r sits half and under because i have the fans running fulltime.
i would assume yours is ok as long as ur needle doesnt go into the red.
then you probally have bad circulation (which from what i know can be caused by 1:bad water pump 2:big air bubble in a line somewhere. 3: junk building up in the raditor.
i would check both the caps for a big bubble. and if fine then mabye its time for a new water pump.
also you may have a bad temp sensor.

I would replace the thermosatst for a colder one. You may have one for cold climate.

Mine sits below half on a 90 degree day with the fan on. I got an all copper radiator and no ac and power steering.

aka the radiator is not blocked by anything.

I've noticed this on both of the MX-3s I've had/have, in fact on all GS'es I've been in. I think it's just the way it's calibrated, it's always a hair above the halfway point. There have been threads about this. One funny thing I noticed is if you turn off your car and then put the key to "on" right away so that the gauges turn back on the temp needle WILL actually sit in the middle like it should, but then when you start driving it'll go back again. Weird.

Every MX-3 I've owned runs at between 70-80% of full hot.

okay thanks guys.. Yeah i noticed that too... when the car is off but ign on the gauge sits in the middle... start the engine and it goes up a bit. Must be from the increase in charging voltage causing the gauge to raise a bit.

Thanks for the advice!

finally got my mx3 back on the road!! (new tranny installed) now its time to enjoy it a bit before i sell it


ahahhaha

Mine also sits in the middle on ALL my 3's. My DD is just a hair under the middle line.

The dash gauge reads the resistance of the single wire sensor coolant temp sensor so if that is bad it will read higher than normal or lower than normal depending on how it has failed. Mine sits below the halfway mark unless its super hot in which case its at halfways. It can be totally independant of the condition of the cooling system's functionality, seeing as how the 2 wire coolant sensor is what the ecm uses to turn on the fans the dash gauge does not really mean squat other than a readout for the driver.

Mine sat a tiny bit over half way maybe 55% and then my water pump and thermostat went bad and now it sits at about 45%

Mine sits just under half. It never overheats and runs pretty cool.

Newfie_dan wrote:The dash gauge reads the resistance of the single wire sensor coolant temp sensor so if that is bad it will read higher than normal or lower than normal depending on how it has failed. Mine sits below the halfway mark unless its super hot in which case its at halfways. It can be totally independant of the condition of the cooling system's functionality, seeing as how the 2 wire coolant sensor is what the ecm uses to turn on the fans the dash gauge does not really mean squat other than a readout for the driver.

That's a valid point, I keep forgetting about that. Man it sure woulda been better if Mazda used 1 coolant sensor for everything.

to some extent I would agree with you on that but its kinda nice to have them seperate as it makes for a cheap replacement if the dash gauge is reading off. An aftermarket coolant temp gauge can be hooked into the ecm ect to get the readout if you really want one.

ok so on my klze it came with the thermostat houseing with the one hole for the temp sensor.
so your saying i can buy a aftermarket sensor for that hole to make up for the one sensor i have and the other sensor that i dont have?

If you want the factory dash gauge to read then you will need to drill and tap the neck for that sensor, the klze only used the 1 coolant sensor, but if you want an aftermarket then you can wire in the gauge to the 2 wire engine coolant temp sensor to get the same readout that the ecm uses, its just a thermistor resistance reading that's calibrated to temp on the dial.