the Mazda t-stat lasts?

My FC has been "behaving" for a long long time. Just yesterday, after I detailed my car, I tool it for a spin to take advantage of semi-nice day.

Mind you that I always check all the fluid before I take off, and less than 2 miles temp gauge just went up and I turned around and got back on my street and it began beeping (coolant level).

I had pulled the hood lever to cool it off better and coasted into my garage. I opened the hood and... you know the rest.

I just installed the new t-stat about 2,000 miles ago.

Of course, I checked for any other possibilities but I couldn't come up with anything else.

Yeah, I'll check the t-stat anyhow but, only 2,000 miles?!

 

Title updated to better reflect question

 

Thanks, Icemark.

 

All it takes to test it is a small pot of water on the stove & a thermometer.

I'd check around for another cause.
Maybe debris blocking the oil cooler or radiator?
A still small coolant leak hiding somewhere?

 

I'd say 50k miles tops. But it shouldn't konk out on you in only 2k miles.

 

Ckd the old t-stat after installing the new one.

It was t-stat.

 

Check the heater hose that goes from the left rear of the engine block to the firewall. It is common for the oil filter pedestal o-rings to crack in old age, leaking oil onto the heater hose, which degrades the hose and causes a pinhole leak. This happened to my car, and it took a long time to troubleshoot the coolant loss problem because the hose only leaked after driving for a few minutes, and the leak was so small that it didn't leave very much coolant residue in the engine bay. My thermostat also failed when I had this problem, but I do not know if it was because of the problem, or if the thermostat had simply worn out.

In my experience the Mazda thermostat lasts about 80,000 miles.