Mondeo Mk 4 TDCI - Temperature Gauge Faulty

Hi
My 09 tdci Mondeo MK4 has a strange temperature gauge issue.

Sometimes it will appear ok (it never goes past halfway) but most other times not really.

Usually it will warm up fairly slowly and only get up to halfway when at speed (60+), slowly dropping down to 1/4 or just below when encountering towns/traffic and driving at a lower speed, but occasionally it does spend most of the journey at halfway, but will never stay there.

The car drives without fault apart from this minor issue and both heater and aircon work fine - there seems to be no noticeable effect if I have heat/aircon on or not. It has relatively newish coolant (usually at the right level or thereabouts).

I guess it could be a trial and error job - possibly a faulty sensor/connection, thermostat (less likely) or the instrumnet panel itself. Any thoughts?

Thanks, semi-baffled.

Asked on 2 January 2016 by mr jinks

Answered by Honest John
As long as the radiator fan is coming on when it should, it might just be an issue with the gauge. Or it could be a sticking temp sensor/sender switch, which is screwed into the block and which feeds the gauge and switches the fan on and off. If it fails to switch the fan on in traffic, the engine could overheat.
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