The Nissan Path

I recently bought an 02 Pathfinder with 91,000 miles on it. It's my first Nissan- I've been driving a Grand Cherokee and Explorer Sport Trac for the last 12 years.

She runs well but I've noticed the coolant temp gauge never rises a few ticks above C... and when I turn the heat on it drops the gauge a tick. Air blows hot-ish, enough to heat the car and defrost the windshield, but not the hot it should be after driving 35 miles.
Has anyone ever come across this before? It's like the opposite of overheating but I dont understand what could keep it so cold...unless the problem is somewhere before it gets to the temp sensor? Improper coolant mix? Bad heater core? Could use some insight on this one. Thanks, guys!

Chris
Buffalo, NY

Welcome to TheNissanpath!!

Its either the gauge or more likely the thermostat.
Consider replacing it.
But be sure to use a Nissan OEM as many non OEM Tstats from general parts stores are bad out of the box.

Cheers,

While the gauge or a bad sensor will give a faulty reading, it won't cause the engine to run too cold and have no heat. Most likely the thermostat is stuck open, but be aware there are actually two thermostats on this engine. One is at the front of the engine and is built into the water outlet (thermostat housing). The other is called a "water control valve" and is located on the top side of the coolant crossover pipe that runs between the two cylinder heads at the back of the engine. I would recommend you replace both. The Nissan part numbers are:

21200-4W01B-thermostat
13050-31U00-gasket
21230-6N20A-water control valve assembly (comes with gasket)