for you stock tII guys(or close to it), how far does the water temp. gauge go up. lately mine has been going a little past half way, but doesnt go any higher. i just bought a thermostat, but havent put it in yet. could that be the problem?

 

stop being lazy and put in the new thermostat, gimp

 

**** you. just because im on crutches, you dont have to rub it in. i will probably do it tomorrow or wednesday anyways. i just need some suggestions, no thanks to you.

 

It could be that, or it could be your radiator needs to be rodded. (Removed and cleaned out the insides.) Or you could just have the radiator flushed.

Another thing it could be is one of the two radiator caps could be not holding pressure well anymore and causing you to not build up pressure in the system. This would make it run a little warmer than usual. Or it could be leaking and causing the same effect.

Another thing to check, if its more noticeable when you are at a stop having the heat levels go up.. Try having the car stopped and take a rag and try and spin your fan in the fan shroud. It should have resistance when you try and spin it, if it does not you might need a new clutch fan.

Just a couple things to take a look at.

 

thanks, ill take note of that

 

How is your water pump?

 

i think its working fine, but i will check. anyone else have any possibilities. hopefully i will have this done by this weekend because its suppose to be in the 50's and sunny all weekend for me.

 

coolant seals are going.

 

if it's going a little past half and not increasing I wouldn't be worried.
It was pretty obvious when my coolant seals went. Serious boil-overage.

 

The 88 (S4) temp gauges tend to show normal at around 2/3 scale, the S5's show normal at 1/2 scale.

The only way to know is to install a auxillary temp gauge.

 

thanks sureshot. i dont think my coolant seals are going. the car only has 102k miles on it.

 

Hmm my NA showed 1/4 on the temp guage.

When I had a bad Tstat it would climb up and up when on the highway.

Replace the Tstat and run some Prestone radiator cleaner through it.

My temps dropped after I did the flush.

 

Check that the spring loaded disc under the stat valve covers the bypass hole down inside the stat housing.
I had an eroded housing once and the disc didn’t cover the bypass.
It gave symptoms like a partially blocked radiator.

You would know if you had an internal coolant leak:
Hard to start,
sputters on one rotor,
starts to catch on other rotor,
blows white coolant smelling smoke,
then clears up & runs OK.

 

lol That's what both of my FC's did before they kicked the bucket.

The SE held out for a day while the GTU went belly up instantly.

 

mine doesnt do any of that stuff(knock on wood).
i will look at the t.stat when i go to put in the new one though. i think i will also flush the radiator out this weekend. thanks for the help guys.

 

well, i put the t-stat in yesterday. it was great all day, staying at about 1/3 on the gauge no matter how hard i was running it. then when i went to leave my friends last night, i go a little bit warmer(about 1/2). so i just went out and drove it about 5 mins ago. it goes in between 1/4 and 1/2. mainly goes to 1/2 when im accelerating, but does it some randomly too. why is it doing this?