Just like the topic says. What are the symptoms of a bad thermostat? My car likes to spit out coolant through the overflow reservoir. I changed the radiator cap and it still does it. Its my daily driver so I cant have it down for a long time.

I was thinking it was my coolant seals going. The stock temp gauge went up to 3/4 the other day while I was stopped waiting for the light. As soon as I started moving the temp gauge went down to 1/4 and stayed there. I dont know whats going on with my cooling system and I dont want the engine to really overheat and die.

 

My car did weird things with the temp. after I changed all my gaskets. Turns out I had some air in the system....once it was all out everthing was fine.

Todd

 

Ive taken the air bleed screw off from the radiator and poured coolant down the filler neck until coolant comes out of the air bleed hole. That dint solve the problem. Ive done that a couple of times.

 

Overheats at idle but cools down when going down the road? My guess would be the fan clutch is bad, the belt is slipping, or the radiator has had someone at sometime put radiator stop leak in it. Not really the symptoms of a thermostat. To eliminate the thermostat as a bad actor, just take fifteen minutes to remove it completly and go a driving. I doubt if its worth the trouble though. Wrong symptoms.

 

A bad thermostat can act a couple of different ways:
If it is stuck open your car will never heat up, or will go up and down but never get very hot.
If is stuck closed the car will over heat all the time.
There can be other problems, but these are the most common.
hope this helps,
hanman

 

so would a bad fan clutch make my coolant come out of my reservoir tank?

 

If the fan clutch is a gonner, it won't pull any air thru the radiator. No air thru the radiator= a car that overheats and a radiator that will puke its guts out to the overflow. If you drive the car as it starts to overheat due to a bad fan clutch, then the fans job is replaced by the motion of the car doing the fans job. Ram air. Then again it could be the belt. Who knows. Could be an inadequate radiator due to a crud buildup.

 

The car has been doing this for the past 2 weeks i believe. Im not quite ready to get an electric fan right now, so how much do fan clutches run for? Im kind of broke right now and I would really like to get a fluidine + electric fan. I guess a replacement fan clutch would do for now

 

Junque yard. Don't waste good beer money on a new one. Take a gamble.

 

Thanks alot