Temp reading after thermostat change !!

[andre]

Hi all

I have just had a new water pump and thermostat fitted as part of my 120k (km) service, but now find that the temperature behaves very much differently to what it used to.

The car takes longer to warm up in the traffic, when it does warm up it goes all the way over to two ticks past 90 and the fan comes on for about 10 seconds. This happens all the way to work with the fan coming on every now and then. Now this used to happen, but not as much as far as I can recall.

However, more of a concern is that if I start off in the morning and hit the highway straight away (no traffic). The car never seems to get above 2.5 ticks above 50. If I stop at a traffic light for any length of time the temp slowly rises again to just under 90, but then drops back to 2.5 ticks above 50 when I get going.

Is this normal ? It seems to me that the thermostat is stuck half open, but I have nothing to compare to. The old thermostat died a nasty death by sticking closed making the drive home a bit of a stop start affair !!

Thanks
Andre

[SteveH]

Andre,

That doesn't sound right at all!

If you have a new thermostat fitted, you should find the car warms up quickly, stays at 90 and doesn't drop low while travelling at speed. My car used to behave a bit like you describe until I replaced the thermostat, now it does what you'd expect - keeps the temp constant.

HTH
Steve.