Civic owners:Q on temp guage

[Nerds laugh at me]

I have a '93 Civic DX hatchback.
For the rest of you with similar cars, have you too noticed that the temperature gauge seems to be off ?
My guage works. As the engine warms up, the guage moves upward as well.
The problem is that I have never seen it cross the halfway mark.
I even did some stupid experimenting once in 98* - 100* weather. Just to see if I could get the guage to move past the halfway mark, I completely closed off the entire grill. I then drove for around ten or so miles.
I could feel the heat from inside the car and the metal part on the shifter was scorching hot.( my car is actually an automatic )
I could smell antifreeze as well.
Pretty stupid yes I know ......... BUT the guage never moved past the halfway mark.


So a question for all of you - has even one of you ever seen your guage move past the halfway mark ?

I'm curious because I know that Honda fuel gauges are laughably innacurate.

[mrmad]

That's what it is supposed to do. My CRX and my Integra move up to about 1/3 the way (where the thermostat opens and attempts to keep it at this temperature). In bumper to bumper traffic, the temp gauge will move a tiny bit higher until the fans come on. When it was 110 degrees here in So Cal a few weeks ago, both cars did the same thing. There's enough cooling capacity in the radiators to keep the temp here.

It's when it does go above the 1/2 way mark that you need to check to see what's wrong.

[1993CivicVX]

I've never seen my '93 VX temp gauge budge. Never drove it in super hot weather tho. It stays at about 1/3 maybe a smidge more than 1/3. But less than 2/5.

[Nerds laugh at me]

Thanks for the replies folks.
I just wanted to add that I had the car so hot that my radiator was leaking.

( a small sprirt from the end of the hose - nothing serious. ..and nothing visibly other than a drip every few seconds. )
It still had me concerned though.

Also remember I had the ENTIRE grill blocked just to see if the needle would budge.
I swear it actually seemed to actually show a LOWER reading.
( What do you make of that ? )

I bought a mechanical gauge that I'll install later.
I just don't trust the factory gauge.

1993 Civic VX : I like your car. It's a twin to mine colorwise.

[LxMike]

I'm not a civic owner but can tell you what i have found out. my temp gauage stays right in middle and on scanguage temp shows 180-190. the few time i've got caught in traffic the temp on sg went to 220 and dash guage was still same place!

[mrmad]

When I had headgasket problems on my Integra, or when I blew the bypass hose on my CRX, there was no question the stock gauge was going above the 1/3 way mark to tell me I had something wrong.