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i’ve noticed a recent problem in my ute where the temperature gauge reads very low, at first i suspected a faulty sensor connected to the gauge in the car until today where it was doing a few funny things but long story short about 20 mins of the car barely revving and crawling around a carpark (teaching my girlfriend to become comfortable driving a car with manual transmission) i noticed the temp had gone up to half or a tad above compared to it recently reading very cold which it returned to very shortly after reaching highway speeds once again. i’m under the assumption it should normally be about half way or so which got me a bit worried about it, the radiator is definitely full though i may be replacing the cap soon as i think it has the wrong one currently on there.
but going upon what i’ve tried searching and diagnosed i’ve kind of convinced myself the thermostat is playing up or the sensor connected to the gauge is unless someone else is able to shed some light on this?
one other small thing i noticed for the first time was the aircon acting funny, compressor was switching on and off quite intermittently within 3 seconds of switching it’d go back, i originally checked this when the air vents weren’t getting cold
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The way you describe it I would replace the thermostat without thinking twice. At highway speeds there is ample airflow through the rad to keep it cool but at low speeds there is not. Since the cooling fan does not come on until the engine reaches above operating temperature the engine reaches that temp. at low speeds.
thanks for the reply, i’ll look into getting a manufacturer replacement thermostat sometime this week for it, the cooling fan in the vehicle is belt driven so i think it runs constantly, i may be wrong, might double check next time i start from cold, the vehicle is a mazda bravo b2600 4×4 if that provides any further insight
LoL…..for some dumb reason I thought it was a Honda. Must be a “brain fart”. The same idea applies to all cars anyway.
hopefully that’s what the issue is, i was worried for a while it was the temp sensor giving me false readings until today, been stressing aver the car as i’m trying to sell it haha, at least i know it hasn’t been overheating without me knowing because part of my paranoia was worried about a head leak until i realised the block itself was black and it wasn’t soaked in oil, cheap fix is always what ya want to hear
It does sound like the t-stat is either stuck open or
not modulating. If the have a scanner plug in and read
live data to watch your coolant temp.+1 on a thermostat issue. Based on your description that’s where I would go next. Don’t forget to bleed the cooling system when you’re done.
got the thermostat changed out last weekend, at first glance it looked fine but on closer inspection the internals were ever so slightly bent or twisted leaving a small gap for water to seep through, new one is in and sitting at the right temp, along with plenty of other issues i’ve been chipping away at and it should be ready for a new owner as soon as someone comes along.
also a little note for eric if you read this, not sure if you’ve done any videos regarding fan speed resistors but mine was acting funny when it went, fan only blew when on full speed but the strange thing was the ac compressor wouldn’t kick in and only did when on the speeds where the resistor was no good.
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