Alright, so for the past couple of weeks I've been dealing with issues with my car's cooling system. It's a little bit of a long story, but I'll try to summarize.
I have a 1994 Sunbird LE.
When I bought my car, it didn't have a thermostat installed. It never really occurred to me until I realized where the thermostat was supposed to be, as I also noticed dash temp gauge was reporting that the car barely ever floated over the first mark. I purchased a Stant thermostat, and installed it. For about a week this seemed to work alright, but then last Friday when I had just got home from the store, steam started rolling out of under the hood. The temp gauge barely said I was over the 1/4 mark.
Apparently, the radiator cap never gave way, but steam had finished off the worn thermostat housing gasket. I assumed this mean't the thermostat was sticking, so I ordered an ACDelco thermostat, instead, to replace it.
After replacing the gasket, installing a new coolant temperature sensor, and installing the new thermostat, it seems to be reporting the correct temperature. However, whenever the thermostat appears to open, the temp drops rapidly down to the 1/4 mark (maybe about 140 degrees), and then back up to the middle mark (about 200 degrees). It keeps doing this as long as I'm driving. It even does this when at idle, although slowly.
While it was sitting at idle, I checked under the hood and it also appeared that there was a steady stream of steam spraying out from around where the upper radiator hose attaches to the radiator.
Not really sure what else could be wrong at this point. Ideas?
I have a 1994 Sunbird LE.
When I bought my car, it didn't have a thermostat installed. It never really occurred to me until I realized where the thermostat was supposed to be, as I also noticed dash temp gauge was reporting that the car barely ever floated over the first mark. I purchased a Stant thermostat, and installed it. For about a week this seemed to work alright, but then last Friday when I had just got home from the store, steam started rolling out of under the hood. The temp gauge barely said I was over the 1/4 mark.
Apparently, the radiator cap never gave way, but steam had finished off the worn thermostat housing gasket. I assumed this mean't the thermostat was sticking, so I ordered an ACDelco thermostat, instead, to replace it.
After replacing the gasket, installing a new coolant temperature sensor, and installing the new thermostat, it seems to be reporting the correct temperature. However, whenever the thermostat appears to open, the temp drops rapidly down to the 1/4 mark (maybe about 140 degrees), and then back up to the middle mark (about 200 degrees). It keeps doing this as long as I'm driving. It even does this when at idle, although slowly.
While it was sitting at idle, I checked under the hood and it also appeared that there was a steady stream of steam spraying out from around where the upper radiator hose attaches to the radiator.
Not really sure what else could be wrong at this point. Ideas?
It never really seems to hold any amount of fluid very long, but I stopped the only notable leak (apart from, maybe, that hose) in the system. Maybe it will now.