AdamF

So in the past few months my temp gauge on my dash has been acting weird. For a long time the temp would show that it was reading fine, and then it would be at zero and not give any indication. Recently in the past few days, my temp gauge has now gone the other way, and is reading consistently at about 1-2 o'clock (3/4 the way). I have tried turning on my heat all way and it still doesn't come down. I pulled the car over the other day and the engine didn't appear to be running any hotter than normal when I opened the hood.

Also, yesterday I drove it and the temp reading was high, then after being parked for about 4 hours I went back into the car and when I turned it on the temp reading automatically went up almost a 1/4 of the way.

Would this be a thermostat issue or do I possibly have a faulty temp gauge on the dash?

AdamF

Sorry, forgot to put the model in here. This is a 2002 Audi A8, 56k miles.

silverd2

Just a guess, but probably not the thermostat OR the temp gauge...it could be the coolant temperature sender. It is a dual sensor...2 separate sensors in one unit...one signal goes to ECM to tune motor (fuel/ignition) to temp, which may be fine if motor runs normal and not getting bad mpgs...the other sensor sends a separate signal to your gauge. These do go bad and usually only one sensor at a time...so either wrong gauge reading or strange engine behavior with normal gauge reading.