Normal temperature?

Hi

Recently bought a C3 1.4HDi 16v 2002.
When the ignition is first turned on all the temperature bars light along with the others.
On our normal trips to work ~ 5miles the engine temp indicator does not usually light even one bar, never more than one. Is this normal?
I'd be more worried if it over-heated of course, but it seems to run strangely cool?

Thanks

Hi Pilgrimuk

That doesn't sound normal to me.

Does your cabin heater work, ie if you turn the heating control up and the blower on, do you get lots of hot air?

After your journey, open the bonnet, without touching anything, can you feel heat from the engine? Does the radiator feel warm? Anything feel/smell too hot?

I would suspect one of two problems, either the gauge is wrong, usually a faulty sensor, in which case your heater will work as normal; or the thermostat is stuck open or 'lazy', this means too much cooling water is circulating and the engine never gets up to normal temperature. This would also affect the cabin heater as it will be getting warm rather than hot water so may feel cooler.

The are other possibilities, such as faulty radiator cooling fan/thermostat but for now I'd look at the above.

I'll check that - I would say the cabin air gets warm rather than hot. It does seem "overcooled" to me.