Temp guage low on 2017 acadia slt

$1200 to change those 2 things ? ! ? You been bamboozled , take it somewhere else .

My wife’s Equinox was doing the same thing, hooked you a scan tool to see what the coolant temperature the computer was seeing, it was warming up as it should and you could see the thermostat open and close until it reached operational temperature so it wasn’t the thermostat or coolant temperature sensor, so started looking at the gauge circuit, turned out to be a bad stepper motor for the gauge, sometimes it just wouldn’t work.

The correct thermostat temperature is a 195°F. Sounds like they probably put a 180° or maybe even a 160° thermostat in there. In the old days you could do that. But a computer controlled engine must reach operating temperature within a certain time period from a cold start up, usually within 10 minutes. Is the check engine light on? If it is that's because the engine is not getting up to operating temperature. The problem with the gauge going to 0 and the air conditioning not working is the coolant temperature sensor or the wiring going to the sensor. When the computer loses the signal from the coolant temperature sensor the gauge on the dash will go to cold and the computer will assume the engine is overheating. The computer will then take steps to avoid engine damage such as disabling the air conditioner because the air conditioner adds an additional heat load to the cooling system. Lastly, for some reason GMs don't like aftermarket coolant temperature sensors. Replace the sensor with an AC Delco sensor. I work at Napa and we get a lot of those sensors for GMs back defective. Don't know why but when a customer exchanges the aftermarket sensor for a Delco one it works perfectly. Hope that helps! Jim