Hi Aldi, like yours, mine (Mk 3.5 / NC2, 2.0 litre) takes about a mile or so to reach operating temperature which on my car appears to be an indicated “4 o’clock” & it then sits there, never budges regardless of driving conditions so I’m sure that’s how mine should be, particularly as it’s been like that since I got the car (which was brand new).
This was as high as mine would go when driving. It would go to the normal halfway point if I stopped and left the car idling. Got a new thermostat and the car now reaches normal halfway mark when driving.
To all who read and contributed many thanks. After further investigation etc. and a few longer runs to see the effect of cruising on the temp I decided that I did indeed have a stuck open thermostat, I also got an OBD reader and Dashcmd and identified that the shown temp was approx 60 deg C. Had the stat replaced today and the needle is now at just under halfway up the gauge and Dashcmd reports 88-90 deg C. On the short drive home (it was already warmed up) the car feels more responsive and I assume that it had always been running rich as not getting up to operating temperature.
Cheers
Ian
In response to an earlier post relating to temp and age/model of NC, here is a link to mx5parts thermostats, they are indeed different over the different versions. If that makes any difference to gauge readings, I don’t know?
http://www.mx5parts.co.uk/thermostat-cover-mk3-35-p-2330.html
Barrie
OBD reader is definitely the way to go because Mazda decided not to put temperature numbers on the gauge.
I got mine up to 100°C on the recent OC trackday.