think my thermostat is stuffed

[beefcream]

hey,

im tryin to find where the thermostat is? my car now gets hot real quick the top radiator hose is hot but the lower right one is normal. does this sound like the thermostat or somethin else?
the radiator also isnt very hot after a drive, is it ok to drive it to a merchanic or will i do big damage?


thanks,
Chris

[VNPOWER]

It sounds like your radiator is blocked. You can either buy a new radiator, or take it out and give it a good flush with the hose. Piss easy to do at home, no need for a mechanic.
I highly doubt its your thermostat, most of the time they are stuck open not closed.

However If it is the thermostat, and you have a series 1, your going to be in trouble.

Its located right at the back of the engine, underneath the throttle body. 7/10 guys who try to change it fail, because the housing welds itself onto the engine block over time, making it near impossible to get it off and change it over without breaking it.
I was lucky, mine came right off. But my uncle is a mechanic, and he has had lots of trouble with these series 1 vns and thermostats. Not to mention all the other guys on the forums with this same problem.

[defa]

i broke mine. but they are cheap from the wreckers. if it is your radiator don't pay to much for one.. they are not worth anymore than 130

[SV3800!]

Sounds like the thermostat my ser 1 VN did the same wasn't a problem except where its located its a bitch to manouve around the plenum.
I replaced the ther housing even thought mine was ok for $35ish why not just change it HTH

[VN-88]

ive played with my thermo stat several times now, once u do it once its easy, take ur tb of first, then undo ur rubbers pipe going to the thermo stat housing then undo the only bolt, it will tkae a alot of wiggling but u should get it off, only a little bit of coolant will come out, then pull ur old one out and put ur new one in the same way, my car never had one so i put one in, i paid 10$ for mine from holden

[Boofe]

I've had my thermostat stuck closed in my previous car "Diahatsu Charade".
But yours sounds like the radiator is blocked...

[SweetWagon]

Yeah does sound like the thermostat. My dads patrol thermo stuck closed and overheated bigtime. replaced it but never ran the same and chewed the oil so therefore had to take heads of and get it remachined and evrything was warped. The themo in my vn i think is stuck open as it never gets off the first 3 bars on the guage but i dont worry about changing it as it is a bugger of a job mentioned previously

[VN-88]

if ur thermo is stuck open, u really should change it, i never had one and mine bearly even ever got of 0, it just sat on the needle all the way to work in the morn, really bad for the engine, so u should fix it... but yeah it really aint that hard

[beefcream]

i took the car out this morning for about a hr and gave it a hard time on the way back from the bay. the needle stayed on C for about 20mins and then after that made its way to the first marking (level 1 cluster) and stayed ther. Seems to be ok now.. I HOPE