1998 Camry - thermostat on dashboard always half way to hot

[camry_98_owner]

All

I got my car from the Capitol Toyota, San Jose after following service:
1) 135 K major maintenance
2) all belts replaced
3) water pump replaced
4) changed all fluids - topped off all fluids

When I was about to leave the service shop, I saw that may indicator for temperature on the dashboard was all the way to HOT. I quickly turned the engine off and asked the mechanic to take a look.

They made me wait for 1 hour and gave me varying reasons for the behavior -
1) fan is not working
2) maybe an issue with water pump
3) then suddenly they came back saying all is fine - could be made up reason that the coolant was not filled at all

The reason I say it is made up is because I am observing following behavior which I have never see with my car in 10 years of ownership:
1) the temperature indicator goes half way to hot within 90 seconds of cranking the engine and driving maybe a couple of blocks
2) Yesterday night I was on the freeway at 3 am in the morning when it was pretty cold outside but the temperature indicator went all the way to half in about 3 mins. This has never happened. At nights on freeways the indicator used to be very close to Cold all the time.

Am scared that the service shop is not going to fix my car. All this after charging an arm and a leg for apparently "fixing" my car.

Any thoughts as to why such a behavior?

Thanks in advance.

[megamac83]

maybe air still in the coolant system, not too sure!!!

[hooRAH]

Originally Posted by camry_98_owner

All
When I was about to leave the service shop, I saw that may indicator for temperature on the dashboard was all the way to HOT. I quickly turned the engine off and asked the mechanic to take a look.

Probably forgot to bleed the air out of the system. Make sure your heat works, and check the level of the coolant over the next few days, topping off as necessary. Air will naturally work its way out of this system.

Originally Posted by camry_98_owner

The reason I say it is made up is because I am observing following behavior which I have never see with my car in 10 years of ownership:
1) the temperature indicator goes half way to hot within 90 seconds of cranking the engine and driving maybe a couple of blocks

Not sure it should go to halfway THAT fast, but change 90 seconds to 3-4 minutes under load and thats about right.

2) Yesterday night I was on the freeway at 3 am in the morning when it was pretty cold outside but the temperature indicator went all the way to half in about 3 mins. This has never happened. At nights on freeways the indicator used to be very close to Cold all the time.

Actually, it sounds like you had cooling problems before, and they DID fix your car. The temp gauge should sit at halfway regardless of how hot or cold it is outside. Running on the freeway with the indicator at cold suggest that your thermostat is stuck open.

I would venture a guess that they replaced the failed thermostat in your car when they replaced the water pump, but you don't indicate that they did. If they did, then I wouldn't worry about it other than topping off the fluid. If they didn't replace the tstat, it may be that flushing the fluid cleaned it out a bit, I don't really know, but its unlikely that simply flushing the fluid would fix a failed thermostat.

Good luck with it, let us know what you find out.

[Mike Gerber]

"Actually, it sounds like you had cooling problems before, and they DID fix your car. The temp gauge should sit at halfway regardless of how hot or cold it is outside. Running on the freeway with the indicator at cold suggest that your thermostat is stuck open."

I have to agree with hooRAH. It does sound like your thermostat was stuck in the open position previously, and they replaced it. It is now reading normal. The gage on your dash should be at the halfway point when the car has reached normal operating temperature; not near the cold mark. A new thermostat will also make the car warm up to operating temperature more quickly. It does sound like they forgot to replenish the coolant or bleed all the air out of the system when you first drove off. You probably shut the car down before any damage could be done. You should be alright now, but check the coolant level in the radiator and overflow tank in a day or two when the engine is cold. Replenish the system with a 50/50 mix of antifreeze and water if necessary. Then check it again in a couple more days. If it is down again, then take the car back to the servicing dealer and tell them what you have observed.

Also, you need to me more explicit on what in included in the 135K major maintainance. Most dealers will make up their own maintainance packages.

Mike

[camry_98_owner]

Finally got to posting a reply.

I drove around my camry for a week and it seems everything is fine. the gauge does not go beyond about 40%.

but since my previous experience was the gauge retreating to somewhere close to cold when I am on freeway cruising at 60, just to clear my doubts i went back to the shop, and had the technician ride alongside.

he got a diagnostic reader which would bypass the gauge and show my the actual coolant temperature. i am attaching the readings at startup here.

also during the ride the coolant temp varied between about 208 F (at say a stoplight) and 192 F on freeway cruising at 60 mph. Let me know if these are reasonable temps.

thanks

[yiujai86]

my temp gauge sits at about half too.

[Shelbrain]

I believe those are in the normal temp range. According to my ScanGauge II, the coolant temp is around 192-200 for me during normal everyday driving.

[Mike Gerber]

Those temperatures seem perfectly normal.

Mike

[CamryWilly]

hooRAH is terribly right no doubt about that, I had the same problem last summer.

My radiator was pretty finished and one day the car got too hot for the 250k miles old thermostat and stcuk it open. When winter came the car never got hot particularly on the highway because of the wind.

One thing about a cold engine is excessive fuel consumption because your always running rich. When I changed my thermostat this winter I not only got back to normal temp(gauge stuck at half) but had a miraculous gain in MPG!!

[Kep]

Out of curiosity, did they charge you for a new thermostat or radiator service when they did the service?

Kep

[camry_98_owner]

yes!
they did charge me for a new thermostat. with 135K miles on my camry i wanted to get major maintenance done - all belts, all fluids flush and top off and tire change. (a total of $1400)

i hope to drive the car for another 70K before another major maintenance like this.

thanks.

[Black95Cam]

keep up the maintenance, and it'll keep on going and going.

[BlueFusion6851]

I have been having the same issue with mine, although my issue was overheating after driving back home to Sartell. Your system probably just needs to be 'burped' i.e. 10-15 hot/cold cycles.

Happy Camry Longevity!