Is this normal in traffic?
 

My temperature gauge goes as high as 200F or so when I drive in slow moving traffic for 10 minutes. Is this normal? It will usually get as high as the '0' in the '180' on the dial. My 2000 C4 is stock and only has 35K miles.

Thanks...

yes... especially if the A/C is running... when im in traffic i just try to use low RPM's and just keep an eye on it... and if its not too hot out ill drive with the windows down.

Does the engine temperature fluctuate from 180 to 200? You should see the effect of the high speed fan setting coming on and bringing the temp back down. With the AC on, the temp should stay at 180 because the high speed fan setting will come on when the AC is on. You can check your fans (both sides) and make sure that they cycle on and off as required.
My car is an'01 and cycles between 180 and 200 and you can hear the fans come on.
James Greer

Part of what makes it seem unusual to see it climb, is that (especially) American car companies have started using "central tendency" gauges. That is, the needle will stay in the center unless the value changes dramatically. Sort of a cross between an idiot light and a gauge.

They got tired of fielding questions and complaints from people who worried too much about small differences in the gauge readings. So, now, you can sit in traffic and think, "Wow! My temp hasn't gone up at all!" -- when, in fact, they're just hiding it from you.

Porsche doesn't do that, so you will see the variance across different driving conditions.

That's normal for my 2000 C2 as well. Needle never moves past the middle of the zero. I just completed the "radiator fan mod", so now I can control the high speed fans with a flip of a switch. Summer drives w/ stop & go, I just keep the fans running all of the time. Keeps them from cycling on and off a lot.

there a how to on this mod?

Here's one. https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/996/120586-fan-mod-quick-question.html I used 18 gauge wire. Assure the wire is attached to pin 85 (should be marked on back of relay). Also there's a ton of threads about this -- search for fan mod

my car does the same thing...it got close to 200 last week.

Might try to do this mod on mine, good info, but I only have issues on the track son not sure if it'll help me much

Here in Arizona - 110 degree heat mine goes up to the line after the zero in 180. I do the trick with the HVAC controls and can see my coolant temp in celsius on the left display and it hits 110C that equates to 110 x 1.8 = 198 +32 = 230 fahrenheit

How sneaky of them. I'm glad Porsche isn't doing this.

I decided to clean my radiators before looking into other options (such as wiring a switch to turn on the high-speed fan). I spent a few hours removing the bumper (with the help of the wonderful video posted to other threads) and I found a lot of road junk trapped between the condenser and the radiator. Checkout the before and after photos.

I hope to put everything back together this weekend and to take it out for a test drive. I'll update the thread with the results of this work just as soon as I get stuck in traffic again.

And here is the "after" photo.

I see the same thing and also when I'm driving hard. Usually comes down after a couple of minutes. Since I've never seen it go above 200 I haven't worried too much about it.