Mine here in So Cal runs about that temp range according to the DIC, BUT my temp gauge always stays at the third mark after the engine has warmed up regardless of the DIC readout! What gives with that???

 

The temperature gauges in many cars are now clamped to stay at one needle position while the temperature may vary significantly. The reason is that some people freak out when they see 230F on the coolant when there is nothing wrong with it. GM and many other manufacturer's got tired of explaining it to people and decided to just make the gauge not move until the temps start to get marginal. There are still people today that just have to install a 160F stat thinking it gains something or that 210F is overheating and impending doom. Some people just can't handle it. My GTO was clamped similar to the HHR. My Duramax is clamped but it's not as aggressive.

The down side is that people like us that would like to know the real temps either have to get a scanner or luckily, in the case of the HHR, switch the DIC.

I wonder at 230F and start to worry at 245F. At 250F I pull over and would let it idle. I've never seen 230F on the HHR but would regularly see it in my 3800 SC engines. Any time you roll into the throttle on the HHR SS, you will see the temps rise (with a little delay) and then they come back down when you get out of it. You know there would be people in the shop complaining about the needle moving too much if they didn't clamp it. "It never happened in my day!"

 

The highest temperature I've ever had on my 2.4L engine is 218 degrees.

 

Hi, The red one never runs that hot, but I've never had a car run consistently over 200 deg so I was curious. Still doing great. New job has me running all over the place and it now has 18,000 miles on it. Runs great! and I get 31mpg average on the hwy. Beats my 2.4 panel in every way.

 

I took my HHR to get it's oil change to the same place as always. But my OIL LIFE % didn't change to 100% it's still at 11% and also my temp is now 216 and it's ALWAYS at 206. Am I just freaking out over nothing?

 

You have a SS panel ? Very rare.
FYI. You have to reset the Oil Life monitor. Sounds like the oil change place didn’t.
You can do it yourself. It’s in the Owners Manual.

 

The oil life goes from 100 to 0, not 0 to 1000. Did you reset the life after the change? What was it before the oil change?
Always 206F is fairly high. Most run at about 190F.
Is this a SS?

 

?
Oil life when reset goes to 100%. It goes down with use.
Ex. After 5k miles it will read 50% or so. The percentages can vary depending on driven conditions, mileage and time engine is in use.

 

Thanks, corrected. I found that 100% is usually about 12,000 miles or whatever would be near that in metric. Probably 20,000 km or 12,427 miles.

 

You need a thermostat.