thermostat

[viali8]

My car was running hot a couple of weeks ago. the needle was above the half way mark but not in the red, just about 3/4 of the way. Therefore i changed the thermostat which fixed the problem, the car does not run hot any more. but i think i might have caused another problem. the needle is not quite at the half way mark after i put the new thermostat in. is this bad for the engine? does the needle have to be exactly in the middle or is it ok if it is below 1/2 way? thanks.

[325eXTATIC]

While there IS such a thing as running your engine too cold, that is a VERY RARE condition. My eta even at a full tilt boogie won't touch the half way mark! As long as the needle gets past the blue section indicating full cold after a couple minutes, you are fine. I tend to think that anything over 1/4 of the way up is fine. Assuming she isn't running really rich and dousing the plugs with fuel and quenching detonation, forcing an "overcool" situation, you have nothing to worry about. And if you can't see/smell raw fuel coming out of the exhaust, and your plugs are dry when you pull them out of the cylinders, you are in GREAT shape!

Hope this helps!

Josh W.

[DJProfessor]

yeah josh is right, you are just fine.......nothing wrong with running a bit cold.

[viali8]

thanks for the info. guys. it will put my mind at ease now.

[325eXTATIC]

Hey Vilali8, did you get a fail safe or fail open (same thing) thermostat? This is a good piece of maintenance advice... When the thermostat fails, if it is a failsafe, it will fail in the open position, meaning your engine may not warm up as quickly as normal, but it WON'T overheat without another major cause! Trust me, it is worth replacing it again for a failsafe version (shouldn't cost you more than $25) just for the insurance that it offers! No More Overheat because of a failed thermostat!

Just some friendly advice from a guy that has warped a Honda engine block because of a faulty NEW NON FAIL SAFE thermostat!!!

Josh W.

[viali8]

Xtatic, that is a good piece of advice and i totally forgot to check if it was a fail safe thermostat. but thanks for the reminder, i will check it out. stay cool.