is this a thermostat issue

[bowlofturtle]

my dad has been telling me about his 94 4banger for a while.

he tells me in the winter, the car takes a very long time to warm up. while driving it gets warm but once he stops at a red light or stop sign for a short time it cools down. he tells me its pretty constant this is happening.

now orginally i was thinking maybe he needs to burp the cooling system and etc. car has 130k on it never been flushed or anything. so i go replace the T-belt, water pump cause he was due for it replaced and well flushed the system as well. All goes well and he tells me the issue is still there. so here i am thinking it possible that the t-stat is stuck open causing this issue.

Haven't tested it out but i checked at local stores and its about 20$ and i'm going to do upper and lower hoses as well. hoping this will solve the problem.

Would this be a t-stat issue?

[Eye8Pussies]

sounds like it


and lol...it should have been the first thing that you checked...

if there's air in the system, the engine can get hot, not cold

[Davee]

Originally Posted by bowlofturtle

my dad has been telling me about his 94 4banger for a while.

he tells me in the winter, the car takes a very long time to warm up. while driving it gets warm but once he stops at a red light or stop sign for a short time it cools down. he tells me its pretty constant this is happening.

now orginally i was thinking maybe he needs to burp the cooling system and etc. car has 130k on it never been flushed or anything. so i go replace the T-belt, water pump cause he was due for it replaced and well flushed the system as well. All goes well and he tells me the issue is still there. so here i am thinking it possible that the t-stat is stuck open causing this issue.

Haven't tested it out but i checked at local stores and its about 20$ and i'm going to do upper and lower hoses as well. hoping this will solve the problem.

Would this be a t-stat issue?

Sure sounds like it . Lucky to get 130,000 km before changing. I am at 226,000 km & have changed 3 times. When really cold the 4 banger just doesn't heat the car acceptably. My water pump was still good at about 220,000 km but changed with second timing belt. There is a high temperature version of the T/S if it never gave enough heat

[Mike Gerber]

I have to agree that it's a thermostat issue. The thermostat is either stuck in the open position or it's spring tension is now so weak that it is opening up too early. Change the thermostat and gasket (actually an o-ring) and bleed the cooling system.

Mike

[bowlofturtle]

Originally Posted by Eye8Pussies

it should have been the first thing that you checked...

well he mentioned it earlier to me, prior to doing the belt but i was like i'm going to check the car out next weekend and it turned into a month but i looked at the belt first and i saw it show too much signs of cracking so i went and picked up all belts and pump and fancy red coolant completely forgot about the t-stat which i was going to replace but blah. did it and he just mentioned again. this is me thinking about it without look at the car but yea. upper and lower hoses and t-stat going in maybe an ETC for good measure since i have a spare now from a mr2

[bowlofturtle]

any negative effects of this in the summer time?

dad told me he needs to get brakes as well so this will be postponed for maybe 2 weeks

[Eye8Pussies]

no real rush to change it during the summer- two weeks won't hurt.

just hope the nights don't get cold since he has not heat though

[marc780]

I believe your first hunch must almost certainly be correct, because when you think about it what is the ONLY-POSSIBLE thing that can cause OVER cooling? Answer, thermostat stuck open. No big deal really you'd think. EXCEPT i had a nissan 200sx that ran cool for a long time, and i live in California so i just let it go, thinking like i said, no big deal. Until the day when the dam thing stuck CLOSED and i blew up the engine because i did not believe the temp gauge! So a malfunctioning thermostat ought to be replaced even if its stuck open, cause it may very well pop loose and then stick closed. A little lesson that cost me $1000 bucks to learn (used japanese engine)

[bowlofturtle]

well i mean it will be replaced just 2 weeks later on. my dad is the type if he sees the temp gauge goes up he will stop and call me regaurdless where i am.