so yeah on really cold days I have a long cold drive/wait until I have anything that resembles warm air in my car. Once I get warm air coming out and I can feel my various body parts I will have volcanic air coming out hot enough to burn your hand it seems but when I idle it'll go back down to cold. Now it only does this idle/cold thing when it's really cold out and doesn't happen every single time. Also my revs do not drop when idle.
things to check:
t-stat
fluid level / quality
water pump
belts
heater core plugged
hvac switch
those are somethings suggested to me to investigate. Anyone else here have a similar issue or their own 2 cents?
kthxbye
My car wouldn't warm up at all, had the thermostat replaced yesterday. Cleared everything up nicely. Thats the first place i would look.
how long does it take for the coolant temp gauge to go past the solid square? if it takes a long time then its the t-stat.
ZX5focused,Jan 26 2006, 11:02 PM Wrote:how long does it take for the coolant temp gauge to go past the solid square? if it takes a long time then its the t-stat.
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not terribly long. to get past that square maybe less than 5 mins? takes a long time to get to the middle though.
I know it's been talked about before but is this a DIY job?
nass,Jan 26 2006, 07:15 PM Wrote:ZX5focused,Jan 26 2006, 11:02 PM Wrote:how long does it take for the coolant temp gauge to go past the solid square? if it takes a long time then its the t-stat.
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not terribly long. to get past that square maybe less than 5 mins? takes a long time to get to the middle though.
I know it's been talked about before but is this a DIY job?
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5 minutes to even get remotely warm or 5 minutes to full working temperature?
It should only take about 5 minutes to get to fully operational temp from a cold start while running the car (driving, not sitting in the driceway at idle)
The thermostat is a DIY project if you can control the leakage of coolant. It is easy to find and easy to do yourself. I can almost guarantee that everytime this issue ocurs on any car it's the thermastat. It's such a cheap fix.
Your not losing coolant are you?
hmm lets see 5 mins with about 2-3 idle the rest driving, I usually will drive till the end of the street in first or second at around 3k to try to warm things up a bit. This morning I had the car idle for 5 mins and drove to my gf's place which is a 10k drive and just then I had some resemblence of heat.
I am not leaking coolant cause I spent couple hundred replacing the upper and lower rad hoses to fix that issue. I hope it gets warm enough this weekend to do this.
nass,Jan 27 2006, 01:56 AM Wrote:hmm lets see 5 mins with about 2-3 idle the rest driving, I usually will drive till the end of the street in first or second at around 3k to try to warm things up a bit. This morning I had the car idle for 5 mins and drove to my gf's place which is a 10k drive and just then I had some resemblence of heat.
I am not leaking coolant cause I spent couple hundred replacing the upper and lower rad hoses to fix that issue. I hope it gets warm enough this weekend to do this.
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Stop guessing and change your damn thermostat ;) It's the only thing that can cause an issue like this.
Do NOT buy Stant or Canadian Tire thermostats. Shell out the few extra bucks for an OEM thermostat from Ford. This is NOT a part you cheap out on. It can result in an overheated engine. And by the time you notice, it will be too late.