after all that, this morning I was on the way to Advance auto parts for the thermostat and you guessed it, the temp gage and DIC readout for temp started working. I bought the thermostat anyway, maybe I won't be in a rush to install it.

many thanks for all who commented

 

It's the thermostat!! Replace it!! If you read some of the other links on the subject, you will see that it can be intermittant, and you will learn that what you are seeing is that the engine is slow to warm-up under certain circumstances, but not all.

You have a broken thermostat - replace it.

 

X2 Thermostat - Had same issue - dealer replaced and flushed system put in NEW Coolant - Good to go - Problem Fixed!

 

I agree, change the thermostat. This is something that GM has been doing for a while with their cars. I had a 2001 Monte Carlo that the T-stat went bad in. The car would not get up to operating temp after a short period and the computer would send the cooling system into safety mode. There would be no register of temp, the a/c would not come on and the radiator cooling fans would kick on.

Since the computer could not read a temperature it did not know if it was overheating or not. The safest way to handle it was to disable the thing that would make it over heat the quickest (a/c) and turn on the fans for good measure.

It all started working properly once I changed the thermostat. The ones put in cars these days are designed to fail in the open position.

 

I finally got around to changing the thermostat which I bought shortly after I got the outstanding advice from all of you. It indeed was the problem , it took maybe 30 minutes. Only info that was misleading is there is not pet**** at the bottom of my radiator that I could find and I really looked it over. No problem just pulled the bottom hose off, drained and refilled.
Thanks again to all the members of chevyhhr.net that help make owning this car a breeze
Beachbum1