Running Cold

[mikemrq]

Have a 96 Contour, a few months ago I noticed the car was running cool. I thought this was great that the engine runs cool in the hot summer. Now its getting cold and this morning going to work the temp gauge only moved about 1/4 " which is below the normal mark on the gauge and the heater was not blowing as hot as it should. Any ideas?

[Scrapper]

have you changed the thermostat latley it maybe stuck open?

[mikemrq]

Any instructions here on the removal of the thermostat?

[Scrapper]

follow your top hose to moter and it's right under where top hose goes and it's under there.

[beyondloadedSE]

Originally Posted by mikemrq

Any instructions here on the removal of the thermostat?

Remove clamps. You're done.

[EZFrank]

I have a 96 contour doin the same thing and i replace the thermostate, water pump, timing belt, temp sensor and its still not fixed. feels like water and antifreeze is not circulating.

[Davescort97]

If you have had an overheated engine their is a plastic plug in the thermostat housing that has melted to allow coolant to flow past the stat. To fix this you need to buy a water outlet (thermostat housing).

[EZFrank]

we got the heater working drove the car for a few blocks and all the antifreeze is blowing out of the resevior bottle through the cap i tried replacing the cap and still no go

[rhandwor]

Feel the upper and lower hose and make sure both are hot. If you have white smoke coming the exhaust you might have a blown head gasket. Otherwise pull the upper hose and look for excessive deposits in the radiator. If this is the case either clean and rod the radiator or by a new one. Not many shops will clean and rod them anymore. Pep Boys used to be one of the cheaper radiator sales places. A bad thermostat will make a car overheat. I take an old coffee cup fill it with water and drop new thermostats in boiling water to make sure they open their not the quality they used to be.

[EZFrank]

yes its wierd cause we got the car to running temp and ifelt the rad and its really cold but the hoses where pretty warm the top one was warmer than the bottom hose also felt the heater hoses and are luke warm i thought maybe the rad is cloged, we gave it another flush and filled it up with just plain water i took the car for a long ride and got heat again, also if i feel the upper rad hose with car running you can hardly feel the water passing through thats why i think mabe the rad is cloged. Also would like to thank you all for helping out,