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Just putting this out there..in all likelihood, if you take this to a shop, you will have a huge bill....and no further understanding of your car.
If you do this yourself, you will spend next to nothing in relative terms, and know exactly what's going on. If your car is old and the resister for the oil cooler hasn't been changed, it's going to need to be done anyway- and that's the lowest hanging fruit here. And it's super easy to do w basic tools.
So if it were me- I'd pull the fender liner, then the front bumper cover- and replace the resister. Start the car, and let it get hot, see if the fan turns on. Assess from there. Everything in that area is super simple. And easy to test.
If you don't have a set of shop manuals- they are available on pdf in various places. Do a search and you'll find someone has them...
Just putting this out there..in all likelihood, if you take this to a shop, you will have a huge bill....and no further understanding of your car.
If you do this yourself, you will spend next to nothing in relative terms, and know exactly what's going on. If your car is old and the resister for the oil cooler hasn't been changed, it's going to need to be done anyway- and that's the lowest hanging fruit here. And it's super easy to do w basic tools.
So if it were me- I'd pull the fender liner, then the front bumper cover- and replace the resister. Start the car, and let it get hot, see if the fan turns on. Assess from there. Everything in that area is super simple. And easy to test.
If you don't have a set of shop manuals- they are available on pdf in various places. Do a search and you'll find someone has them...
Completely agree with this. And as I've learned over the past year, you can also have shops either completely hose it up or throw parts (and labor) at it or take shortcuts.
My Quickjack arrived this week. Time to take it over myself. If you want it done right, do it yourself, and all that.
The temperature gauge is your way of knowing the temperature of the motor. There is no water temperature gauge because there is no water so this gauge lets you know how "hot" or "cold" the motor is. Normal operating temperature is between the two middle hash marks (yellow arrows). While the oil is warming up it is considered good practice to keep the revs under 3500 until it clears the second line on the gauge (red arrow). While it is perfectly alright to operate the car while the temperature is above or below the two middle marks, do not run the motor for any length of time with the gauge in the red (blue arrow). It is not considered a good idea to let the car idle to warm it up; it can take a very long time to warm up the engine at just idle. After you start the motor it is fine to drive the car under approximately 3500RPM until it starts to warm up.
Originally Posted by tinman964
I don’t feel the warmth on the front right fender so that could be the problem. Drove the car from LA to SF and the needle was at the 10 o’clock range the entire trip, hope it didn’t do too much harm.
The thermostat most likely did not open and will need to be addressed. See Vandit’s excellent thread for replacing the internals and also for the temp sensor mod if you want to do it. While you're at it, test the cooler fan operation by jumping the high and low sides of the relay. Regarding your trip back to SF, you will be fine as long as you did not run with temps in the red for extended period of time.
I had a sticky thermostat a while back too. Replacing just the thermostat insert (spring and plunger/piston) fixed the issue. The plunger wears and then gets stuck askew inside the thermostat cylinder. It's not a difficult job and shouldn't be more than 2hrs at a shop + oil change and insert part. If the shop wants to replace the entire thermostat, go someplace else!
05-09-2019, 12:39 AM
