Can anyone help me?
My 3.5 V6 Trooper is overheating. I would like to check the thermostat but cant find it. Can somebody please tell me where it is?

Does anybody else have experience of overheating? Is there anytning else I should check?

Thanks

Hi Paul,


The thermostat is located below the throttle assembly / common chamber. You can follow the rad hose that connects to a black metal pipe which is part of the thermostat housing. Four bolts and it's off. ( easier said than done). With a flashlight you can see the housing and bolts. There is a lot of stuff in the way like the outlet pipe assembly that has the idler pulley on it, that should also come off.
It's a big job.

Patrick

Does anybody know of a complete walk-through for replacing the thermostat?

I know it'll take a couple hours. But, is it really overly difficult?
Basically, if I've never replaced a thermostat before, should I even try it?

I've always replaced the thermostat first on cars which were overheating since they're cheap.

I've never fixed an overheating car by replacing the thermostat.

But you gotta replace them first because you'll kick yourself really hard if you don't replace it and it's the problem.

Well, I'm not even having any problems right now. I just bought it 5 days ago, and it has run great. But, the Shop that inspected it said that the Thermostat needed replaced. Any ideas why it might need replaced if I'm not overheating?

You'll know for sure when the weather heats up a bit. I don't know what part of the country your in, but that will tell the story. My experience with Troopers overheating was not a thermostat problem, but a temperature sensitive coil in the fan blade center assembly. check your fan blade 'free spin' when the engine is cold and when it is hot. It should spin more freely when it is cold. if not, you'll need to replace the center metal assembly.

Well, I'm not even having any problems right now. I just bought it 5 days ago, and it has run great. But, the Shop that inspected it said that the Thermostat needed replaced. Any ideas why it might need replaced if I'm not overheating?


I'm not sure. The only way I know to test a thermostat is to put it in a pot of water and heat it up and see when it opens.

But at that point you might as well pay the 5 bucks to put in a new one.