divil

My 951 has begun to overheat - I am 90% sure it's the thermo switch...here's what I've observed - can anyone shed any light on it before I order the part:

It gets really really warm in the cabin when driving, even with the air con turned on. I can feel the air vents getting hot, - I can touch the bottom of my stereo (because the eq was removed) and it gets hot to the touch. But as long as I"m driving the temp gauge reads below the halfway mark. When I stop at traffic lights it shoots up almost to the high white mark but it never went past it. When I got home I and switched off the engine I noticed that the fans were not on. I read the cooling section on Clark's Garage and from that it looks like the thermo switch has failed. I can make both fans come on by switching on the air con with the key in the ignition, but they just don't seem to run based on temperature.

Is my diagnosis sound? Anything else I can/should test for before I go buying parts?

M758

If the car gets to the last white mark, but never moves over that it is working normaly. The temp gauges on these cars moves and once the temp gets to that last white line the second fan should kick in to cool the car. It common to be running speed at cool temp and then have temp increase when stopped. That probably mean the fans are not turning at speed. That is ok as the temp is fine. When you stop the temp will increase until it hits the last white line. Then the fans will kick in and should cool the car back down. If you much past the last white line you may have an issue.

The A/c issue is probaby the heater clip. Do search for this and you will see a number of treads. It could also be a leaking heater valve.

divil

wow I didn't realize the gauge would go so high in normal operation. That is good news though...I removed a few screws from the heater clip cover and sure enough the broken white plastic tab and metal clip fell out onto the floor. So I definitely have the heater clip issue - hopefully that's all. Thanks for the help, I'll update the thread when I have that fixed.

M758

The temp gauge in these cars actually moves with engine temp. If I remember correctly the last while line is 210 F. Not that hot really. It just looks hot.

pnbell

The top of the middle section (late cars) is about 212f

https://rennlist.com/forums/944-and-...lant-temp.html

^ See my post (#4) for temp readings ^

My water temp sits at the top of the middle section constantly... However if i turn my heater on high it actually lowers down to the middle; This leads me to believe that my Heater core is working like a 2nd radiator and that my actual radiator is not operating correctly (probably plug/clogged/ stuffed full of mineral deposits)...

Will be replacing it at some point, Summer is coming and i don't really like my car running hot...