>Be 10f out
>Drive on highway at 55MPH for 30 minutes
>Coolant temp drops to 0 on coolant temp gauge.
>Heat becomes luke warm even on max heat.
>Get back home.
>Pop hood and touch upper radiator hose.
>Probably 90f at most.
Do I need to block my grille with cardboard?
Picture unrelated
>18420573
thermostat likely stuck open
your thermostat stuck open?
sounds like your open is stuck thermostat
You suck.
Why?
Depends on the engine, some of those 3 and very small 4 bangers like in the old fiestas would literally not get hot enough to put out useable heat. Especially not at 10 F.
Car is a 1998 Lexus LS400 (1UZ-FE VVTi)
I've had an s10 that wouldn't maintain running temp in the cold even with new stat. Cardboard in front of the rad ftw, but be mindful of engine temp when it gets warmer or when stuck in traffic.
Probably a stuck open thermostat then. Any V8 should provide usable heat even at 10 F.
I know the 5.0 in my 2000 explorer will burn me out of the cabin within 5 mins of it being cold started. Not to mention that even moderately aggressive acceleration will increase the heat coming out extensively.
What they said
I dont see that stuff here even at -22F
Adding to this since it's a thermostat thread
My 93 explorer reads on the temp gauge that it's always on the cooler end of "normal" at the hottest, and normally way below that to almost cold. BUT, the heater blows hot when I turn it on, and the engine gets warmed enough to be normal operating temperature when I pop the hood open.
What could be causing this, and will it harm anything?
Sounds like your thermostat is stuck open
flush your heater core dude
>high summer
>temp rises by 10°C above normal operating temperature when standing in idle at a traffic light
This is life driving a fucking LeSabre. If that thermostat doesn't close perfectly, that shit ain't getting warm.
Will it damage anything, or can it just be one of my shitbox "yeah that's there" quirks?
Me mum had an ex when I was younger that the tstat stuck, which then caused it to blow a piston. Really sucked as I was supposed to go on an elk hunt that week.
Engine won't run optimally, oil won't reach proper viscosity at super low temps. The thermostat is like 10$. You should fix it.
Temperature gauge likely isn’t even real. I’m fucking serious. Lots of Fords from around that time are like this, especially the oil pressure gauge.
Does the cooling fan run all the time? If the sensor fails the fan runs constantly as a default to make sure an overheat doesn't happen.
you should be fine
Are you sure you have coolant? 10f is nowhere near cold enough to start blocking the rad that's not even block heater temps.
def stuck thermo
have a 90 ranger. that shit is normal
if you leave it your MPG will an hero
Plug in a scanner and look at temps when its warmed up, if its reading somewhere in the neighborhood of 200f its likely a temp gauge fault and like some have said, that shit is hilariously inaccurate in most vehicles.
Check your coolant level. Gage going low and no heat is not just thermostat. It's also if nothing is circulating because of water pump failure or radiator/hose leak.
You mean like the gauges are just giving me bullshit readings? Because that would explain alot with my oil pressure gauge always having read low but my engine never having any problems with it.
We'll shit if it's $10 I'll for sure get it fixed, I just was wondering since I may not have time in the next month to wrench at all because my sister asked me to stay at her place for a while, and she doesn't have any auto tools. How hard is the tstat to replace? Can I buy a cheap socket set at harbor freight and get it done? If so I'll probably just do that
94 Ranger owner here.
You good senpai.
This is full warmed up and roasting my leg when cold.
No need to waste your time dude.
This looks virtually identical to how my gauges look when warm
Awesome guys I appreciate it, good to know it's my gauges and not a mystery problem that I couldn't even tell was there otherwise.
This is after doing highway driving then a little in town at a stoplight
The gauges aren't totally useless though. I lost coolant one time gunning it because a freeze plug was bad, I made it worse. After stopping steam rolled from the hood and I drove back to my house to fix it. About 15 min of driving caused the gauge to move to the 'O' in 'normal', the engine was losing power and sounded worse than usual. It'll also bounce off the L for the oil pressure if I've been hammering it or running on the interstate too long (causes the infamous 2.9 lifter tick)
Awesome, I'll just use them as an indicator and if they start acting normal I'll know something is fucked.