Car running too cold?
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in my gf's cavalier we had the same problem and it turned out to be the heater core only had a small amount flowing through it,all blocked up with nasty...new heater core did the trick,cheap but alot of work.
have you flushed the system?thats why the cav did it ....13 years w/o a flush-n-fill[girlfriends car]left some sludge,could barely blow through it.
have you flushed the system?thats why the cav did it ....13 years w/o a flush-n-fill[girlfriends car]left some sludge,could barely blow through it.
Okay, so it is getting hot... Did you use the bleed valve when you tried to get the air out? also when you bleed it you need to have the heater in the full how postion in order to do it correctly, I'll look at the instructions again to make sure I'm not forgetting anything.
When you did the thermo, and you drained it, did you make sure to put a 50/50 mixture in?
When you did the thermo, and you drained it, did you make sure to put a 50/50 mixture in?
btw....in my civic the rad hoses were doing the same thing,top hot bottom cold.....3 new therms and the solution ended up being that parts store parts are crap,1 therm from honda dealership[oem] and it setteled right down....all of em tested right in a pot on the stove but the oem was the only one that worked right in the car....all within 5 degrees of eachother....I have no idea why but she runs proper now,and by the way O'Reilly's parts store did'nt even list a 1.5 in the civic all 1.6 but they assured me it was the right therm for my car....honda had 1.5 listed so thjats why I thought I'd try it,$8 more than the parts store but it worked....again I have no idea why.
no not discount,just a retial parts store and one was NAPA[like that means anything anymore].......and I know a d isnt a b it was just weird that out of 4 working therm's only 1 worked right,and the auto shop I hang at rarely has probs w/thier parts from either store[NAPA and O'Reilly's are all we have in a 70mi radius]
That's a whole other issue, but the short answer is yes put the other one back in. It's better even ifyou aren't running bost to bo a little on the cold side than warping your head when it's hot. By the way, you should put the "new" Thermostat in water, and measure the temperature at which it opens just to makesure it's not a piece of shit...
simplyfast
Senior Member
damn it, he does not have air in his lines. he ran his engine with the radiator cap til it heated up. when the engine is runnin the water pump is turnin, therefor moving coolant thru the cooling system. any and all air bubbles would exit the system with the engine hot and radiator open. besides, air in your coolant doesnt prevent the thermo from opening.
during winter months i usually only fill my coolant system 3/4 so it will be able to hold a temperature. my thermostat still opens up, just enough for it to keep my engine cool.
there is a bleeder screw on your front coolant housing. that is how you are supposed to properly bleed your cooling system of any unwanted air. what you should do is take your new/being used thermostat out and put them in a pot of water and bring the water to a boil keeping track of the temp with a thermometer...someone already suggested this and they are right.
cooling systems arent fuckin rocket science for god sakes. and workin on them isnt difficult. it should take 5 minutes max to remove your thermostat, and another 5 minutes to bring water to a boil with it in it. and dont worry bout puttin it in the wrong way cause you really cant. hopefully you could feel it cause the neck of the housing wont allow the spring end of the thermostat to go into it, so when you were tightening down the housing you would be able to feel the thermo cruch under the strength of your wrench.
i would suggest you call different parts store til you find a CST thermostat. they run $20 in my area, but they are the best thermo's out there. they open at 170 f, on the dot.
during winter months i usually only fill my coolant system 3/4 so it will be able to hold a temperature. my thermostat still opens up, just enough for it to keep my engine cool.
there is a bleeder screw on your front coolant housing. that is how you are supposed to properly bleed your cooling system of any unwanted air. what you should do is take your new/being used thermostat out and put them in a pot of water and bring the water to a boil keeping track of the temp with a thermometer...someone already suggested this and they are right.
cooling systems arent fuckin rocket science for god sakes. and workin on them isnt difficult. it should take 5 minutes max to remove your thermostat, and another 5 minutes to bring water to a boil with it in it. and dont worry bout puttin it in the wrong way cause you really cant. hopefully you could feel it cause the neck of the housing wont allow the spring end of the thermostat to go into it, so when you were tightening down the housing you would be able to feel the thermo cruch under the strength of your wrench.
i would suggest you call different parts store til you find a CST thermostat. they run $20 in my area, but they are the best thermo's out there. they open at 170 f, on the dot.
ive already put them into water and the new one wouldnt open until right before boiling and the other is cracked open a bit and starts to open about the same time. like i mentioned im planning on turbo so do you think should be the original one back in until i turbo in a few weeks?
simplyfast
Senior Member
you need to forget bout goin turbo til you have this coolin problem fixed. if not, you are goin to cause yourself great headaches when you go turbo, and possibly cause much damage to your engine.
if the thermo doesnt open up quickly at the temp it is supposed to, it is close to being stuck. and the new thermo opens when the water comes to a boil? hopefully youre not droppin the thermos into the boiling water directly. you should put the thermos in from the get go, and bring everything up to temp at the same time. if not, you are going to burn out those thermos by melting the wax away. like i said, try to find a CST or Beck/Arnley thermo.
once i tested a new thermo in a pot of boiling water and it looked like it was operating as it should, put it in the car. if the car still runs cold, slowly start to block air flow thru the radiator by placing cardboard in front of it. (someone mentioned that) if the all air flow to the radiator is blocked off and the engine still isnt reaching operating temperature, you have a problem with your coolant temp sensor, or some other electrical problem.
little peice of worthless data: 217 f is the optimum operating temperature of an engine. at this temp its most effecient.
if the thermo doesnt open up quickly at the temp it is supposed to, it is close to being stuck. and the new thermo opens when the water comes to a boil? hopefully youre not droppin the thermos into the boiling water directly. you should put the thermos in from the get go, and bring everything up to temp at the same time. if not, you are going to burn out those thermos by melting the wax away. like i said, try to find a CST or Beck/Arnley thermo.
once i tested a new thermo in a pot of boiling water and it looked like it was operating as it should, put it in the car. if the car still runs cold, slowly start to block air flow thru the radiator by placing cardboard in front of it. (someone mentioned that) if the all air flow to the radiator is blocked off and the engine still isnt reaching operating temperature, you have a problem with your coolant temp sensor, or some other electrical problem.
little peice of worthless data: 217 f is the optimum operating temperature of an engine. at this temp its most effecient.
i put them both in at a same time and they both opened up right before boiling. like i said when i took the new one back off there was still antifreeze in the block and when the car is warmed up the top rad. hose is hot and the bottom one is still cold. i know its not stop up so whats the deal?
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