Due to work, I had to drive nearly 800KM yesterday, and was constantly traveling between 110KM-160KM/H, with engine revving just over 3000RPM for hours.

I kept an close eye on the water temp gauge, and it stayed around 40% through out the whole time.

I then parked the car inside a garage, over night.

This morning, as soon as I started the engine, gauge on the dash indicates that water temp is at around 35%.

I *believe* this is unusual, because usually when I first start the car, water temp is close to 10%, and slowly rise to maybe 30 or 40%.

Outside temperature = 23 degrees.

I drove to the local garage, and turned out my engine coolant is at Min. So I had them fill up to Max. Will wait for a few hours and see what happens.

Any opinions?

 

It's been hot in Vancouver recently... Was it in the garage for many hours and was the garage really hot? My garage freaking cooks when it's hot out, so maybe the car never fully cooled down.
Note: Don't forget to mention 23 °C because 23° to an American is A LOT different.

 

Metric to English conversions please

Did your guage go down all the way down when you turn the car off? I ask because it could be a problem with the actual guage and not the temp. For what it's worth, I think filling the coolant reservoir will solve the problem.

 

See, here is what I did. After the coolant has been filled up to MAX, I parked the car in shades, opened up the hood and let it sit for about 2 hours.

Then I physically felt the engine block with my hand, and it's pretty cool.

At that point I started the engine, and watched the needle travel from 1/8, to 1/4, and eventually to about 1/3, in less than 5 min of time. Note: this is with the car being stationary, and no revving of any kind.

Like Dave said, Vancouver has been hot indeed. I am hoping this is why?

BTW, 23 C = 73.4 F.

 

And yes, as soon as I turn the car off, the needle of the gauge goes all the way.

 

If I cold start my car when the temperature is 70 degrees F, the needle will be at the normal temp by the time I drive 1/2 mile at 20mph through the subdivision. That's about two minutes at just a little above idle.

The Z warms up faster than any vehicle I've ever owned.