Sticking thermostat? (archive)

My car has developed the problem of running hot/ near hot occasinaly now. The temp gauge normaly runs at "noon" but now everyonce and a while it'll run at "2 o'clock" (1/2 way between straight up and the begining of the red). The gauge has also begun to flop between the two sometimes, like it will read "noon" then with in a second jump to "2 o'clock" then it might jump back, or it will stay. Like I mentioned, it seems to be an intermitent thing, some times it will read "2 o'clock" steadily, some times it will read "noon" steadily, then theres times where it varies between the two temps slowly or it will jump between them.

Do these problems describe a thermostat valve nearing its end of life?

Thanks,
~James

PS I do the obvious and check the coolant level also, it is fine right now.

Follow Ups:

Re: Sticking thermostat? dnliii 12:41 12/29/2001 (0)
PS. think stuck thermo only at startup after cold Lars BendOr 82_733i 12:36 12/29/2001 (0)
Bad ground to temp guage can do similar. Lars BendOr 82_733i 12:33 12/29/2001 (0)
Re: Sticking thermostat? Jens T.M.745 10:19 12/29/2001 (0)
Re: Sticking thermostat? dnliii 10:00 12/29/2001 (0)

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