Tad

Question,
can a thermostat be SLIGHTLY bad?
or are they only working or broken?

My car runs very slightly hotter than your usual honda,
like usually the needle is at like 50% hot, and mine is usually like 55%
hard to notice.. but I notice such things

also it warms up really fast,
like from a cold start, if I drive normally, it can be close to the half way mark by the time i get 4 long blocks away..

so wuddya think?
the car never actually overheats, and i drive it daily,
no coolant loss either. waterpump is new.

Cain Marko

I saw this and it kinda reminded me of my friends situation, he swapped thermostats, radiators, hoses and everything possible. Turns out it was the head gasket, but if its not getting too hot, then I wouldnt worry about it, his car was almost in the red, so he needed it bad.

Tad

hmm,
will a leakdown test always diagnose a damaged headgasket(if the hg is in fact damaged) or can it sneak by?

MAKAROV

if its getting hotter than usual its probably not the thermostat. But to answer your question i dont think thay can only be slightly bad. They usually work or they get stuck and need to be replaced.

wilsel

Well the thermostat has a spring that opens, and closes the valve. If it's not opening all the way, it could cause it to run hotter without overheating. It only costs $10-$15, and is the cheapest place to start troubleshooting. Try it.

Tad

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by wilsel &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Well the thermostat has a spring that opens, and closes the valve. If it's not opening all the way, it could cause it to run hotter without overheating. It only costs $10-$15, and is the cheapest place to start troubleshooting. Try it.</TD></TR></TABLE>

yeh, cheap as **** part,
but it'll require dumping all my coolang
but ok if it IS possible then its worth doing!

any brand to avoid, or just any autopart store thermo will do?

wilsel

You don't dump all your coolant. Less than half I would say. I would go with OEM. I had the original go bad in my car, bought an autozone thermo, and less than a yr later it was bad. Switched back to OEM, and haven't had any problems for 3 yrs.

Tad

huh,
only 16bux at honda,
thought it would be more expensivo,
alrighty, guess i'll try that.

i need to do a leakdown though..
was about to buy a supercharger, but now... ehhh....

Cain Marko

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Tad &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">huh,
only 16bux at honda,
thought it would be more expensivo,
alrighty, guess i'll try that.

i need to do a leakdown though..
was about to buy a supercharger, but now... ehhh....</TD></TR></TABLE>

dooo it, you know you wanna

Tad

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by turtlecx92 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

dooo it, you know you wanna </TD></TR></TABLE>

****** cars..

theres no escape,
if this hg is blown, i'll probly end up swapping in a new motor,
cuz i have a warranty on it,

then the sc after that..

this is all fun fun fun fun FUCIN FUN cuz i dont even have a garage
(well ok the sc would actually be fun, hehe)

Built Beast

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Tad &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

****** cars..

theres no escape,
if this hg is blown, i'll probly end up swapping in a new motor,
cuz i have a warranty on it,

then the sc after that..

this is all fun fun fun fun FUCIN FUN cuz i dont even have a garage
(well ok the sc would actually be fun, hehe)</TD></TR></TABLE>

but you live in Cali, where it isn't cold....so quit your bitching

Tad

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by R33CIVIC &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

but you live in Cali, where it isn't cold....so quit your bitching </TD></TR></TABLE>

working on my car in a carport with all my neighbors muckin around messin with me, or paying 10bux an hour to work on it 30miles away, and sunny wheather.

or cold wheather but my own garage..

it is a dilema

t25hatch

I have had lots of problems, with thermostats, I have tried both OEM as well as the five dollar autozone's. Im my experience, they both seem to go bad. To best help troubleshoot to see if your old one was bad, as well as testing your new one before you put that in and find out that you just wasted 16 bucks, fill up a pot of water, and place it on the stove. Set the stove at whatever temperature it is supposed to open up to. (its like 180 degrees F i think? i can't remember maybe 160, its in a Hayes or helms) anyways, test it bye dropping the thermostat in the hot water, and see if the spring opens all of the way up. I would suggest doing this first before you start a headache, I have bought 3 in a row that were bad from autozone, so i just bought like 4 of them and found the one that worked the best, then took the rest back. Once i started my turbo set up, i just went to autozone, and i got a GM thermostat that opens 5 degrees cooler than the stock honda one. I hope that this helps you.

Tad

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by t25hatch &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I have had lots of problems, with thermostats, I have tried both OEM as well as the five dollar autozone's. Im my experience, they both seem to go bad. To best help troubleshoot to see if your old one was bad, as well as testing your new one before you put that in and find out that you just wasted 16 bucks, fill up a pot of water, and place it on the stove. Set the stove at whatever temperature it is supposed to open up to. (its like 180 degrees F i think? i can't remember maybe 160, its in a Hayes or helms) anyways, test it bye dropping the thermostat in the hot water, and see if the spring opens all of the way up. I would suggest doing this first before you start a headache, I have bought 3 in a row that were bad from autozone, so i just bought like 4 of them and found the one that worked the best, then took the rest back. Once i started my turbo set up, i just went to autozone, and i got a GM thermostat that opens 5 degrees cooler than the stock honda one. I hope that this helps you. </TD></TR></TABLE>

good advice, i'll try that.

Built Beast

yeah, I was also going to suggest boiling water on the stove and throwing the thermostat in there to see if it works on not. forgot to write that in my post, it is a good way to keep you from spending extra money for something you are not sure you need. Let just hope that is the problem, because it is one of the easiest to fix when talking about overheating problems.

Tad

cool thanks guys,
BTW,
what do people think about how the car warms up so quickly? Is that abnormal?

Built Beast

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Tad &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">cool thanks guys,
BTW,
what do people think about how the car warms up so quickly? Is that abnormal?</TD></TR></TABLE>

normal for Turbo'd cars, but not NA cars...not sure...your thermo might be stuck closed so that the coolant in the motor heats up extremely quick, it is supposed to exchange with the coolant in the radiator to get it cool, but of course it warms up to what it is supposed to be. I would check that thermo. that would be your best bet.

by the way, if you need one, I would get an OEM one....or maybe I am just an OEM *****

Tad

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by R33CIVIC &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

normal for Turbo'd cars, but not NA cars...not sure...your thermo might be stuck closed so that the coolant in the motor heats up extremely quick, it is supposed to exchange with the coolant in the radiator to get it cool, but of course it warms up to what it is supposed to be. I would check that thermo. that would be your best bet.

by the way, if you need one, I would get an OEM one....or maybe I am just an OEM ***** </TD></TR></TABLE>

alright,
yeah thats what I was thinking too,
also I read about low temp thermos, that their downside is that it takes longer for the car to warm up.. which is what made me think it might be my thermo in the first place. However my car does eat a very slight ammount of oil.

Anyways, i'm going to have a leakdown test done tomorrow, so I'll know for sure whats going on(i've already done a comp test, results were really good)

Tad

well I got it leakdown tested,
results came back really good!
comp test is also good

must be the thermo then i guess?

SirRevvs

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Tad &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">well I got it leakdown tested,
results came back really good!
comp test is also good

must be the thermo then i guess?
</TD></TR></TABLE>

could be a thermostat or have your radiator checked as well. Honda radiator's are so small that a 30% blockage can cause overheating.

Tad

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by SirRevvs &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

could be a thermostat or have your radiator checked as well. Honda radiator's are so small that a 30% blockage can cause overheating.</TD></TR></TABLE>

hehe, yeah and i've got the smallest

Built Beast

you fix the problem? what was it if you don't mind us asking?

Tad

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by R33CIVIC &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">you fix the problem? what was it if you don't mind us asking?</TD></TR></TABLE>

nope not yet,
but i'll update this thread when I do.

daver

in my experience, when a thermostat goes, it siezes shut and causes overheating and lots of damage. a quick way to ruin an engine if you don't notice the engine light quick enough.

One original went at 160 kkms on my mothers car and she cracked the head. The original went on my old integra at 333kkms and the sprk plugs ended up welded to the head.

I'm a little surprised that honda doesn't have regular thermostat replacement recommendations in owners manuals. cheap insurance.

Replace it every 2 or 3 years, no matter what, when you flush your coolant i say. Or go by milage (every 20k perhaps for cheap ones?) Reuse the old gasket along with liquid gasket. Friggin waste for a new one.

I've been using after market thermos because the honda replacement was just quoted at 37$ cdn for a 98 dx At cdn tire they cost 15$. they're obviously a cheaper quality, and have a temperature opening range, rather than a specific degree. but no failures yet. Those 5$ pep boys ones you get down there sound scary.

d

Tad

ok I just payed 25 dollars for an oem honda thermostat,
special ordered too, so I cant return it..

hope its worth it!