Hi, I have a 2000 ex coupe with 101,000 miles on her.

I do not drive her in winter up here in New York, but start her every so often during the winter just incase my truck takes a dump and I have to bring her out.

Current temps are about 5 degrees today.

I had her running for 20 minutes today but the Temp. Guage never moved from the bottom (cold).

Ive noticed since I bought this car over 6 years ago that it always took a few minutes for the needle to move even in hot weather.

Car hasnt seen any driving in about 2 months. Guage was working then but temps outside were not this cold.
I get nice heat coming from vents inside.

any ideas......ECT sensor?

 

maybe its the coolant temp sending unit.....

 

The gauge has it's own sensor (sender). It's in the end of the head below the distributor near the ECT sensor. The ECT sensor has 2 wires, the gauge sender only has one. It's common for the wire to be loose or disconnected, which will make the gauge read cold all the time. If that's not it, unplug the wire and ground it. The gauge should go up to hot when you turn the key on, showing the gauge and wiring is OK, thus likely a bad sender. The resistance of the sender (from the pin to ground) should be about 80 ohms with the engine at normal operating temperature.

 

It takes a long time for the temp gauge to go up when the car is just idling and it is cold out.