Why do thermostats stick

Skip to content Thermostats regulate coolant flow to increase or decrease engine temperature. How It Works Located where the top radiator hose meets the engine, thermostats open or close in response to coolant temperature. The Heat Is On Thermostats fail because they become weak, stuck open or stuck closed. Keeping Your Coolant One sign that you might have a stuck-closed thermostat is rapid temperature increase during normal operation.

Categories Maintenance Tags antifreeze , coolant , cooling fan , cooling system , heater core , overheating , thermostat , water pump. Related Articles. Next Next post: 5 Tips for Driving in a Hailstorm.

Leave a Reply Cancel Reply Your email address will not be published. Close Menu Overlay. Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube. This happens every time you turn on your car when it intentionally burns rich, which is to say it uses more fuel, in an effort to get your car up to temperature faster.

An open valve means it cannot do this at all. If this continues your car will stay in the warmup cycle all the time. That means you'll constantly be burning a rich fuel mixture lowering your fuel economy but it also means you're going to have carbon buildup inside your engine and if it gets bad enough you'll have unburned gasoline making its way into the exhaust system. That can end up destroying your catalytic converter.

The catalytic converter is an important part of your car's exhaust that prevents pollution from being sent out into the atmosphere. That's a pretty steep repair bill for a problem that could have been easily prevented.

Replacing a thermostat in your car could have a range of potential prices. Like most repair jobs, this one really depends on the make, model, and year of your vehicle. High-end vehicles tend to have more expensive thermostats in them and the cost of replacing them will set you back quite a bit more.

The cost of replacing your thermostat is much more related to labour rather than the actual technology being used. A new thermostat can be surprisingly cost-effective compared to many parts that you might need to buy for your car when they go wrong.

You can buy a new thermostat on a site like Autozone. If you're looking to save some money on labor costs, which as we've seen can be pretty considerable for a job like this, you couldn't take on the task of replacing the thermostat yourself.

All things being equal it's not that complicated of a repair job. When it comes to do-it-yourself auto repair so we would consider this one a fairly beginner level job. If you're comfortable doing things like changing out your own oil filter, changing a flat tire or that sort of thing then the task of replacing a thermostat shouldn't be too difficult for you either. Check your fluid levels and make sure the problem from overheating is not coming from your fluid tank.

Find the thermostat. The location of the thermostat depends on your car. Although it is usually near the coolant fluid tank and the car engine, you should consult your owner manual for the exact location. Remove the radiator cap. Again, this should only be done when the car has cooled off from driving. If you do open it immediately after having your car on, there could be a pressurized burst of coolant. Have someone else start the car for you. Look carefully, at a distance away from the open radiator cap, to see if fluid is being allocated to the engine.

Have the person who started the car also notify you of the engine's temperature. Turn off the engine and feel the two thermostat hoses that connect the fluid tank with the engine. Check the top and bottom hoses. Would these symptoms indicate a stuck thermostat? Question: My car started heating up. So I changed the thermostat. It kept on heating up. So I used the car without the thermostat all summer. It was good. What should I do about my overheating car? Answer: I have an old truck I pulled the thermostat from and still use it without it.

It will take your engine longer to heat up without it. Try a new thermostat with fresh radiator fluid, or leave it out. Question: My thermometer takes about two to three minutes to rise up to par. When the car is stopped like at a red light or something, the thermostat starts rising up to over heating.

But when I start driving it goes back down to the middle. What's going on? Answer: Check the fluid level in the radiator. Add radiator fluid if necessary. If there is not enough fluid running through the system when you are stopped the temperature of the fluid goes up. When you drive the wind blows across the radiator cooling the fluid down. When there is not enough fluid in the system it cannot keep the temperature down without assistance from the wind passing over the radiator.

Question: My car temperature goes up to overheating within five minutes. With the heat on the air begins to warm slowly like the thermostat is stuck open. Why would my car overheat so fast if the thermostat was open? Question: My thermostat is stuck closed i. Answer: I'm not sure what is meant by "it's stuck at 50". Is it 50 degrees it's stuck at? A closed thermostat will cause an engine to overheat. Try replacing the thermostat first, it's the cheapest and fastest fix to see if there us a further problem.

Question: Why is my car's engine leaking coolant after I replaced the thermostat? Answer: Check the hose clamps. Something is loose. If you are positive all the hoses are secure, check the hoses themselves. There may be a crack in a hose line. Question: It takes my ram 30 minutes to warm up at -5 Celsius out side. Stuck open thermostat?

Answer: Yep. You may want to check the rating on your thermostat as well. There are various temperature settings better for Summer and others are better for Winter. Answer: What is your thermostat reading when this happens? Water boils at F. The thermostat opens at about F. If the water is boiling in the overflow tank that means it is at or above boiling temperature of F. Check your thermostat for proper operation and top off your radiator fluid.

Question: How long does it take to warm up the engine of a Corolla hatchback after the engine is turned on? Answer: That depends on several variables IE: What is the weather? Cold, Warm, Hot? Is the car being driven right away or parked while it warms up?

Is the radiator full of fluid? If everything is on a medium basis, warm weather, parked while warming, full of fluid, I would say within 3 - 5 minutes it will up to warm. Question: My temperature gauge, in the car, reads normal, and the motor doesn't over heat. But I don't have heat in the car. Why is this? Answer: When you turn the heater on high can you feel the air blowing into the cab of the vehicle?

If yes, you can feel air blowing, but it is cold air, then look to your heater core. The heater core is where the heat comes from. If you do not feel air blowing then your heater fan, or control panel, needs to be replaced. Check the heater core first. Question: My car is running hot, but I have no heat going inside my car, is this my thermostat not working? Answer: This would be a heater core issue. The heater in your car uses a device called a heater core.

It is very similar to a radiator, but it is located under your dashboard. Heated radiator fluid flows from the engine into the heater core and back out to the engine. When the heater is activated in your car a fan blows across the heater core causing the heat from the radiator fluid to flow into the cab.

Either the heater core is bad or the fan that blows across the heater core is not working. Answer: This article reflects on the Mustang, but the process is similar across all vehicles.

It will walk you through the thermostat housing change. Question: I'm from the UK. I have an Astra H Mark 5 I have been getting a fault code, which suggests the thermostat is faulty, but I don't have any symptoms of a faulty thermostat. Could it be the heating element that is gone bad?. The problem I have is when I cold start the car, it starts the first time. When I turn it off or go for a short journey, it won't startup. I must turn the key twice. It always starts on the second attempt.

Any suggestions? Answer: Hello to you in the UK. I am not familiar with the Astra H. Just knowing the starting system in vehicles I would look at the starter first for sings of going out then like you said, check the heating elements, especially the one on the exhaust.

Heating elements build up filth fast when on the exhaust. Answer: The gauge continues to climb because the engine is overheating. The heater is not related to the reading of this gauge. Question: My Buick Enclave got hot too fast and my dashboard is saying "reduced power to engine".

The coolant is in the car but not working obviously. What should I do? Answer: The first thing I would check is that the coolant level is indeed full in the radiator. With the engine cold, open the radiator cap. Turn the engine on. Watch the radiator fluid inside the radiator where you removed the radiator cap.

The fluid should wiggle some at first, after a few minutes, when the engine warms up, the radiator fluid should being jostling quite a bit due to the water pump working. If the fluid never jostles around the water pump is not working. Next, I would check the thermostat.

If the thermostat doesn't open the engine can overheat. Question: If my car overheats it causes my fan to stop working. This happened as I was driving. What you think the cause of my car's overheating can be and what is the best way to fix it? Answer: If I understand your question, the radiator fan turns off when your car overheats.

Check to be sure if it isn't the opposite way. If the fan turns off an engine will overheat quickly. If the overheating is causing the fan to turn off the check that there is no wiring that is becoming hot and causing a ground which in turn could turn the fan off.