Engine running cold

[wildpudding]

Hi everyone.

This question is in regards to a car I just brought. It runs quite cold according to the water temp gauge, like near the bottom during open road driving, and not much higher at town speeds. Stopped in traffic the temp will gradually rise to about the middle, but as soon as I start moving the temp drops back down.

I pulled out the thermometer and it is closed and opens when dunked into boiling water. The car had no anti-freeze in the water and also has a pod filter which I plan to revert back to the normal air box, but one thing changing at a time.

Any ideas? I'm not too keen for it to be running too cold.

Cheers,

Stefan

[marty]

it's a thermostat, not thermometer. you need to know WHAT temp it's opening at, not just that it's opening in boiling water. if it opens at 50deg, there's your problem.

[hospitalfood]

my advice would be replace the thermostat, even if it seems to work.
check that the fan is not running the whole time.
and don't post about your car here, or at least tell us the make and model so we can say how crap they are.

[3umph]

yip replace the thermostat or check it properly...

install a temporary temp guage that has the temp in degrees to check wat its doing...

if you go for a drive and shut your engine straight off does the engine fell warm or hot??

last... I thought this was a motor bike site

[Ride it till the red]

If possible check the gauge and the sensor.....

Could be either of these reading wrong....

I've had a few cars reading similar (my ute reads at a quarter untill i drop 3rd to tow a load up a decent size hill and it rises to halfway) and they were running at an acceptable temperature

What type of car is it?

[Motu]

Those old Morris Oxford's with the B block engine had a 160F thermostat so they were running cold anyway.

[breakaway]

One of our cars has this problem as well, the temp goes up *VERY* slowly, and then once you get moving (Even at 50 on a cold night), it'll start to drop again. And it doesn't get up to temp anywhere as quick as my bikes / other car do.

I'd be keen for a solution to this problem.

[wildpudding]

Yeah cheers, I know this is a bike site but people here are knowledgeable. Its a Toyota Levin GT Apex.

Yeah i'm suspecting the theormostat is opening at a too low temperature. It has 82 degrees stamped on it, but I started the car from cold and compared the temperature by feel of the output and input radiator hoses. The input hose started to get warm when the temp on the gauge was still quite low which suggests to me it is opening too soon and allowing the fluid to circulate when it shouldn't.

Also a bit suspect is the theormostat doesn't appear to be standard, 2 different stores came up with a different shaped one when I went seeking a replacement.

Cheers,

Stefan

[3umph]

different manufactures of them may look different... main thing is the right temp one...

[wildpudding]

Problem fixed. Replaced the theormostat and now the temperature sits normal for all types of driving. It appear some knob who had the car before me fitted a non-standard theormostat.

Cheers,

Stefan

[3umph]

usually the small simple things are the answer

[sinfull]

Pod filter, High temp thermo !
Did it or does it have a big bore exhaust ! Wonder if the bloke ya bought it off ran av or race gas in his boy racer car !

[wildpudding]

Haha na no large exhaust pipe, I specifically asked the dude if there was one on there before I brought it. The pod filter has gone into the bin too.

Now just need to figure out why the idle speed is higher than it should be.

Stefan