jwlee7ucla

so recently friend diagnosed my car::

top hose hot lower hose cold::
fan on when it shouldnt be::

automatically said bad thermostat. And I changed it. it was stuck open.

I replaced it with the OEM thermostat (so it should be working )

but both symptoms are still there.

The thing is the temp gauge never ran on hot, so im wondering if the problem was fixed or not.

I've read that top hose hot/bottom hose cold shows that the thermostat IS working. At the same time i've also read that it means that the thermostat IS broken. So which of these is actually correct?

My fan turns on in ignition 100% of the time, even when the engine is cold. Could it be a bad fan switch? Or some coolant circulation related problem?

pennies_hatchie

iTrader: (1)

if the bottom hose is cold then that means the its not circulating. check to see if the bottom hose is hard or soft? check the water neck behind on the block to see if there's coolant. check your other hoses. check for leaks. again check the thermostat or sensors

St Jimmy

Have you felt the hose after driving around for a bit and its still cold?

jwlee7ucla

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by St Jimmy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Have you felt the hose after driving around for a bit and its still cold?</TD></TR></TABLE>yeah it never gets warm

sinister357

in the perfect world, thats how you want it to be. hot water comes in to the top and is cooled on the way down the radiator and exits the bottom cooled. and your fan switch being on all the time helps cool it! i could be wrong but thats a good theory.

have you tried driving it? does it overheat?

jwlee7ucla

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by sinister357 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">in the perfect world, thats how you want it to be. hot water comes in to the top and is cooled on the way down the radiator and exits the bottom cooled. and your fan switch being on all the time helps cool it! i could be wrong but thats a good theory.

have you tried driving it? does it overheat?</TD></TR></TABLE>

according to the gauge I have never reached past halfway , so no overheat. The lower hose is firm, but upper hose is more firm. I dont want to accidently blow a headgasket just because my temp gauge said i was running normal. There also has not been any coolant loss.

I was thinking about testing to see if the water pump works. Do I run the engine first then open a HOT radiator cap, or do i open the cap THEN run the engine? I'm looking for signs of circulation in the radiator.

jwlee7ucla

bump for help

sinister357

i was just looking into mine and it's the same way. when it's still warming up, the top hose is hot while the bottom stays cold all the way up to almost operating temputure before the bottom startes heating up.

jwlee7ucla

Ive driven the car 30 minutes, and bottom is still cold. Maybe my car is just not reaching operating temperature?