Thermostat
 

If my thermostat is bad, will my heater core still get warm coolant? Right now my heat doesnt work and the car overheats.

Re: Thermostat
 

Sounds like frozen coolant.

Re: Thermostat
 

Or the water pump is dead, but this time of year I'd bet your coolant mixture wasn't up to par. I've done it before and it's not a fun situation. I'm not sure how bad mine froze but it sure overheated quick.

Re: Thermostat
 

If your thermostat is stuck open or opens even though your at operating temp, then your engine will never get warm enough to give you heat. Very common problem but you should not be overheating... so maybe you did freeze your system.

Re: Thermostat
 

I would think if the coolant was frozen it would thaw out after some driving?

Re: Thermostat
 

It would take quite a long time for your whole heater core and tubing to thaw out. I would get it to a warm garage and make sure.

Re: Thermostat
 

ok, i had to stop and go, took me over an hour to make it home, more like an hour and a half =/

Re: Thermostat
 

Thermostat could be stuck in the closed position??? Frozen coolant is not as big of a problem as you guys make it. Unitl this weekend, I have been freezing water in the system all winter. I finally added some coolant to the mix this weekend. Upon startup, the engine is cold and does not need coolant. When the engine warms up and needs it, it is usually thawed out (engine heat). If you want proof, come over to Hopkins and I can show you. My laser wasn't driven thursday and friday (2 coldest days in MN). I took it in the garage (non-heated) Saturday and started it and let it run at idle. I watched the gauge and the engine to make sure it didn't overheat. I added some coolant to the frozen water and the car did not even come close to overheating. Maybe it only reached temps of 15 below 0 in Hopkins huh??? The car warmed up and no problems with overheating were discovered. You can take a look and determine weather the coolant is frozen though. Feel the hoses and check the overflow. Have you replaced the thermostat before?

Re: Thermostat
 

I see it as:
Fozen coolant=frozen core=no heat in the car as the core is frozen

Re: Thermostat
 

You were an exception, not the rule, John. Frozen coolant is a bitch. If it gets frozen hard it will take quite a bit of work to get it to thaw out. If it freezes near the T-stat housing all the way up, it takes a lot of time to thaw out. We just had another thread on this, check out the procedure that worked for him to thaw out his car.

Re: Thermostat
 

I already have had the car in my garage which does not freeze, I will take it out later and see if it works fine now.

Re: Thermostat
 

I have seen radiators get busted because the water froze in them.So I would keep the right mixture in my cooling system and not take that chance.(jmo)

Re: Thermostat
 

Everything can expand or break even the block if the coolant freezes inside. I would also recommend that your get the mix right or figure out what else is the problem.

Re: Thermostat
 

Yeah I have a mix tester thing laying around, I'll check it out before i take it out on the cold again for sure.

Re: Thermostat
 

No coolant in the entire upper hose, when i sqeeze the lower hose I can hear some stuff down there... Could this all be due to it freezeing, or could a HG maybe have caused some of the coolant to dissapear..


Shit i hope driving it for like 45 minutes overheating did something bad to the block, I just need something to force me to upgrade =D

Re: Thermostat
 

I had a problem with my system freezing also. I forgot that I had put water in the system in the summer and sat a couple days in -20 weather. My car's idle started out high and slowly rose, my upper hose was empty, but my lower radiator hose was slushy. I let it run and kept watching the gauges to make sure everything was in operating temps, sometimes the temp gauge would get hot, so I would just let it cool down for 15 minutes and go do it all over again until the coolant system was unthawed. Once it got in operating temps, I found out my heater wasn't blowing out hot air, so I drove it around for awhile to see if that would help. I must of drove that thing around for at least an hour and it still was blowing cold air. So I pulled it in the garage, let it sit and flushed the system and put in a 50/50 mix, and let it run for at least 1-2 hours. After that time it finally unthawed all the way through the lines to the heater core. After that experience I will always have a for sure 50/50 mix.