hi , i have a neon sxt 2004 , its actually my moms car, but when i was driving it i looked ad the temperature. I took twice as long as in my elantra to engine to heat up. The temperature finally rich the work temperature, but also nitced that the temperature needle moves alot. Is that normal ? it also takes a while to get heated air from blower.

 

How cold was it outside? It was -6 when I started my car a couple days ago and it took probably 20 minutes worth of driving to get up to normal operating temperature. When it is not bone chilling cold out it doesn't normally take more then 5-10 minutes and my car is pumping out tons of heat. My needle doesn't move much at all in the winter time. Summer time it bounces around a little bit more, but never close to overheating.

 

its normal. its going to take longer on colder days to heat up. it was 13 degrees this morning when i left for work and it took a good 15 minutes before everything finally heated up.

 

well ye but its florida and its like in 40F so its not very cold ....

 

maybe you might have issues with your thermostat. how many miles are on that car

 

Yeah I would agree you probably have a problem. I agree with ^him.

 

I agree with the thermostat problem, my 03 takes about 5 minutes of driving and its blowing heat even when its near zero. NEVER seems to build up heat when left idling in the morning so i gave up on that gas wasting idea. gauge stays about 1/4 the way up on gauge and steady no matter what the temp outside,a/c on or off maybe you all have thermostat issues lol

 

it has 35k miles

 

Maybe you have a problem. Mine builds up heat if I start it and leave it to warm up. Just does it slower then driving it for obvious reasons. My temp gauge does not fluctuate that much either. Just a bit in the summer, bounces from where you described to halfway sometimes. Then it goes back to where you described. But it could be doing that because I have a SRT cluster in my car. It never did this fluctuation when I had my stock cluster in. I just make sure my coolant is where its supposed to be and forget about it.

 

How long is twice as long as your elantra? and my experience is that once the temp. reaches its operating temp. the needle doesn't move really at all.