2001 Pontiac Grand Prix

LAJOHN

MEMBER
2001 PONTIAC GRAND PRIX
6 CYL
FWD
130,000 MILES

My problem has started within the past couple of days. I go to start my car in the morning and it is cold. Normally I will drive a couple of minutes and it will start to warm up. The temperature gauge will move slowly up. What has been happening is that I will drive for a couple of minutes and the heat gauge will go from 0 to 210 within a couple of seconds. Then when I press the accelerator down, the heat gauge will start to come down some. When I take my foot off the accelerator the temperature gauge will start to rise again. I am just wondering what this problem can be.

3 Replies

SATURNTECH9

MECHANIC
30,870 POSTS

The first thing I would do is scan it for codes and let me know the exact code numbers not code descriptions? Thats are starting point.

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Tuesday, August 19th, 2014 AT 12:17 PM

LAJOHN

MEMBER
2 POSTS

I am not sure what you mean by scan for codes and code numbers. I dont have any scanning type of devices to use. All I know is what happened when I started the car and started driving.

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Tuesday, August 19th, 2014 AT 12:31 PM

SATURNTECH9

MECHANIC
30,870 POSTS

On the lower part of your dash you have a 16pin obd2 connector you would plug a scan tool or code reader into. Then with the key in the run position you would check for codes. The gauge is computer controlled thats why I would see what codes the computer has its a letter followed by a 4 digit number. Then there is a trouble tree for the code to follow. The code readers and scan tools that are diyer cant read all the computers and there codes. If you dont live in California you can go to a auto parts store for a free code read. Just write down the actual code numbers not code descriptions.

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Tuesday, August 19th, 2014 AT 12:38 PM