cd4th

New to the boards, and new to Civics as well. Searched on this and didn't find anything. Picked up an 03 LX out of southern California that was a salvage (rebuilt). Only has 50k on the motor so I was hoping to make it into my next work car. Got all the bugs out of it except one. Anytime you start the car and drive it the temp gauge just sits on cold and doesn't register anything. Naturally it runs with a high idle and no overdrive. Doesn't matter if you drove 2 miles or 200 miles, same thing. Puts out good heat and never overheats. After I drive a bit, knowing the engine temp is coming up, I can shut the car off, restart it, and gauge comes right up to temp and everything is fine. Has a new radiator (froze coming to Illinois on the transport), new coolant (no air in there), and a new ECT. Wiring seems to be good. Did the cluster test and all gauges sweep correctly. Not sure which way to turn now. Sliding it into neutral and restarting while going down the road is not a very good fix. Ideas??? Thanks.

ezone

Welcome!

Salvage? Nightmare. What caused it to be declared salvage/rebuilt? Stolen, crash, flood, what?




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Got codes?

The gauge cluster gets much of its info directly from the PCM through a data bus.

Connect a scanner (or scanner app), watch coolant temp data as the PCM reports it as you drive along.

If the PCM reports coolant temp accurately at all times......find an identical car you can swap clusters with as a test.

cd4th

The car was wrecked. Drives and runs great now, other than this temp issue. It throws no codes. I'll plug the scan tool in and watch the coolant temp as soon as I get a chance. I checked it before like that to make sure it wasn't getting too hot, but didn't watch it as it was warming up. I'll see what it does.