Temperature gage went down in traffic.

Hi I have a diesel 2004 c3.

It normally reaches 3 blocks temperature wise, and sits there quite comfortably.
This evening, I was sat I'm stopped traffic for about ten minutes , engine on. Its a cold 3°c outside. I noticed, as I drove away that it had gone down to two blocks again. It didn't take long to get back to three when I drove back again.
Is this normal to cool down In cold temperatures?

Jakeywakey93 wrote: ↑Fri Dec 10, 2021 5:09 pm Hi I have a diesel 2004 c3.

It normally reaches 3 blocks temperature wise, and sits there quite comfortably.
This evening, I was sat I'm stopped traffic for about ten minutes , engine on. Its a cold 3°c outside. I noticed, as I drove away that it had gone down to two blocks again. It didn't take long to get back to three when I drove back again.
Is this normal to cool down In cold temperatures?

Hi

Mine doesn't do this, but I wouldn't worry too much.

You can check there is sufficient coolant in the reservoir when the engine is cold. This can help tell if there is a problem, along with the colour of the coolant in there.

The level should be between MINI and MAXI and the colour is PINK.

Hi, yeah the coolant level is perfect. I check it bi-weekly.
I took it for another test drive (its now 2°c ) at one point about 3 minutes after reaching 3 blocks it dropped down to 2, but came back again after about 2 minutes. And it didn't go down for the rest of the journey (around 15 more minutes).

It could be that the thermostat is stuck open.

Does it take a long one to heat up to 3 bars?

The thermostat stuck open would make it slow to warm up and re-warm after a stop.

It takes about ten minutes to heat up. And once it's dropped one it doesn't take long to go back to three again. (Well I've only noticed it dip twice!).