My parents invited my wife and myself to their house for the weekend. My wife and I had to work so we left late (6 hour drive and it was cold!)

For the first half of the trip, we had the heat on high, split between defrost and heat and it was working great, even though the temperature was hovering near 0. Then, all of a sudden, it quit blowing hot air. It was only mildly warm... if that. Later into our trip, we were driving through an area that hit -20... and the wind was blowing! Needless to say, we had little to no heater.

I thought maybe the thermostat was stuck open? We stopped for gas and it was -9, so getting back in the car made it feel warm. Then, going up Wolf Creek Pass and working the motor again, the heater worked great! After the summit and on the drive into town, same thing, little to no heat.

Any ideas? Car has 142,000. How prone to failure would the original thermostat be? Did we melt something running the heater on high for so long? We need to get this fixed today if we can. We have to drive home!

Thanks!

 

Sounds to me like the thermostat went out. I would also check the level of coolant in the system. Did you happen to notice the temperature gauge when this was all going on? What was it doing?

 

I would say thermostat as well.

 

Ditto on the thermostat. When you restarted it probably unstuck itself, but it is on its last legs.

 

I did pay close attention to the temp guage. I was thinking it stuck open because it never got very warm, even going up the pass. The temp guage stayed pretty low the entire way to my parents. Thanks for the quick replies! I will replace it today and keep you guys updated. Before I go out looking for one, any recommendations on Temp/Brand?

Thanks!

 

Okay, so we went to town, and since I didn't have a part number handy, I had to go with what they gave me. I ended up with a 195F/90C thermostat. Upon reading further on the forums, I see that it's not recommended... Am I really going to have issues with this thermostat? Do I need to go back to town and get the 190F/87C before I put it in?

Thanks!

 

Dammit, I was going to post to get the lower temp thermostat too...

I dont know the reasoning behind getting the lower temp one, but I can't imagine 3 degrees would make that big of a difference. But if the parts store is close, might as well return it and go with the 87 if they have it.

 

Well, it's relatively close, but my dad paid for it this morning and I don't have the receipt. What about running the 195 over the winter and changing to the 190 in the spring? I'd really rather just go put it in, instead of driving all over town... but of course, I want to make the correct repair the first time.

EDIT: I just called the parts store. The only other two thermostats they have in stock are a 180F and 160F... Both of those are a bit colder than I want to run, especially as cold as this winter has been already. I'll stick with the 195. If I have any issues, I can always order one from FCP and fix it when I get home.

Thanks for the replies! Helpful as always!

 

Sounds good. Good luck.

 

If I'm not mistaken the OEM is actually 195 degrees. That's what I'm running in all three of mine, OEM. Man, I sure hope it works for your!

 

IT WORKS!!!! We have heat! I'll post a picture in a minute. The thermostat was broken, and couldn't seal closed, in effect, making it open all the time. I got the old one out and the new one in no problem. Now, the heater works almost too well!

Thanks for the quick responses; it should make the drive home much more comfortable!

The only bad news is, while I had the car up in the air, I noticed our washer fluid reservoir is leaking slowly, and there's no visible crack, so I'm not sure how to "temporarily" fix it...

But the heat works!

EDIT: Here's the pic. Sorry for the poor quality. I only had my phone and the lens is all scratched.

 

Glad it is fixed.

 

Man that would be along drive w/o heat. Glad to hear you got it working. My solution for fixing resevoir is Duct Tape for a short term fix, then buy a new one when you get a chance.

 

Or I wonder if the leak is coming from the seam between the filler neck & the washer tank. Visual inspection (removal, if possible) would reveal the location.


JPN

 

Glad it is fixed. As for the washer fluid, I would get a new one or a decent one from a wrecking yard.

Glenn

 

That's exactly where it was leaking from. The reason it wasn't working was an air bubble in the system. All we had to do was blow through the tube and run the pump and it started spraying just like normal. Worked all the way home, as did the heater, which is now simply amazing!

Thanks again for the help everyone!

 

That's what we're here for. Glad you were warm and cozy with clean windows on the way home.

 

[sm=icon_cheers.gif]

A solution to the washer leak is to fill it only up to the seam andno more.


JPN

 

90C for non-turbo, 87C for turbo. IIRC from the service manual

 

Being that I was home in a small town, with only one parts store open that day, I had to go with the 90c. It was the only one they had available. We drove the 6 hours home and have been driving it this week, and no issues yet. It's so nice to have the heater work the way its supposed to. The old thermostat must have been slowly breaking for a while before it finally went completely.