psycho83
East of England
Rhythm and Booze
Posts: 777
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My Galaxy is overcooling. on a drive from london to Ipswich on Friday night (about an hour at 70mph) The gauge stayed cold and the blowers didn't blow hot  . In this weather it was not fun! Ice on the inside of the car ,my bottle of coke froze and my snickers bar was like a crunchy . anyway , I assume this is a dodgy thermostat so will be changing it, but is there anything else I should be checking at the same time. I've bled the rad just in case there was an airlock, but that didn't work. running the motor on the drive does seem to warm it up very slowly, so I'm pretty sure its thermostat. just looking for a bit of clarification and other bits to check Ta |
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v8ian
Posted a lot
Posts: 3,832
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thermostat, 99.9%
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Atmo V8 Power . No slicks , No gas + No bits missing . Doing it in style.
Austin A35van, very different------- but still doing it in style, going to be a funmoble
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90% of overcooling is down to the thermostat, usually being stuck open so it doesn't allow the water to warm up (cold water being pumped through the radiator from the outset)
The reason your car is getting slowly warm when running it on the drive is because there is no airflow going through the radiator, this means the heat from the engine is able to keep its warmth.
I ran a car with no thermostat (it had stuck shut so I cut the internals of the 'stat out and reftitted) for two days and the car never got above the minimum mark on the temp gauge. As soon as I put the new one in, all was good.
They cost so little anyway, and are usually so easy to do that I would change it as my first port of call anyway before tyring anything else. I can't really see what else it could be because most 'issues' to do with the cooling system usually manifest themeselves as overheating.
Once you've popped the thermostat out, see if it's stuck open.....it should be fairly obvious (or try it in a pan of water, gradually bringing to the boil to see if it operates...which I bet it doesn't)
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Feb 13, 2012 10:16:01 GMT
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my mk3 cavalier had the same problem so removed the thermostat and what did i find no thermostat fitted, now have roasting car in the cold weather..
hope you get it sorted
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 1995 mk3 cavalier 1.8i 1972 1200 beetle 2010 1.2 fiat 500 "sometime's" 2000 suzuki gsxr 600 srad |
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Feb 13, 2012 10:27:04 GMT
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the other thing that could affect the heater on top of the thermostat issue is that many fords I've come across have a valve in the heater pipes on the engine side of the bulkhead, unsure if this would be the case with a VW group car with a ford badge on it though.
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psycho83
East of England
Rhythm and Booze
Posts: 777
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Feb 13, 2012 12:08:21 GMT
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Was pretty sure it was going to be thermostat, but it's nice to have your thoughts backed up.
Thermostat is about £10 I think and a fairly easy swap. Shame I've got to do it out in the cold, jobs get 10 times harder with frozen hands.
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Feb 13, 2012 14:22:55 GMT
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You can always just stick a big piece of cardboard/polythene across the grille until you swap the thermostat. A frozen Snickers would ruin my day!
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bortaf
Posted a lot
Posts: 4,549
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Feb 13, 2012 14:57:41 GMT
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the other thing that could affect the heater on top of the thermostat issue is that many fords I've come across have a valve in the heater pipes on the engine side of the bulkhead, unsure if this would be the case with a VW group car with a ford badge on it though. Yes but then the engine temp wouldn't be low it would be normal and the heater would be cold, cold engine and cold heater will be the stat 99.9%. Hot engine cold heater usually the header tank return blocked.. All normal when driving but a hot engine at idle and cold heater is usually the pump vains knackerd IME Just had a VW version in with the hot on idle but cold heater, bloke got it cheap cos the seller thought the H/G was gone, buyer got very lucky ;D |
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Last Edit: Feb 13, 2012 14:59:58 GMT by bortaf
R.I.P photobucket
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. In this weather it was not fun! Ice on the inside of the car ,my bottle of coke froze and my snickers bar was like a crunchy . 
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