thermistat question, VR V6

[whitevrboi]

Ok so I've been having trouble with my VR overheating lately so i thought i'd put in a high flow thermistat. I took the thermistat housing off this morning to find that there was no thermistat in there. I know that there was one in there before I took it to my mechanic to get the inlet manifold gasket replaced so it looks like he has "forgotten" to put one in. No biggie since it may be why I was overheating...

Anyways I have bought a high flow stat from Supercheap. I put it in and re-connected the housing, however as I was filling the top radiator hose before reconnecting it coolant started to run out of my housing...so does this mean my thermistat is faulty ie. stuck open? or is this normal for a high flow stat? Does anyone know what kinda luck i'd have with taking it back to Supercrap?

Cheers and Happy Easter

Jack

 

[Brett_jjj]

Sounds like you need a new thermostat housing gasket.

 

[whitevrboi]

Nah mate threw a new one in the same time I did the stat this morning, just taken it for a test n the fan isnt kicking in til its 2 white notches away from red!!! I will try my coolant temp sender n sensor n go from there.

 

[Brett_jjj]

I bet thats why the mechanic took the thermostat out,or didnt put one in.So it would run cool.Theres obviously something not right with the cooling system.Flush the radiator,engine block and heater core.Renew the coolant,then see how it is.Maybe get the cooling system pressure tested to make sure everything is ok.A lot of cooling system problems happen when the inlet manifold gasket leaks or blows out on the V6 engine.Its a very common problem,and the engine will seem to run fine for a while before it completely lets go.It might take a year to completely s##t itself.

 

[whitevrboi]

Yea mate i've been having trouble with the cooling for probably about 6 months now in that time i have, flushed it twice, replaced the thermistat 3 times, changed coolant 3 times, had the inlet manifold gasket replaced. I havent had it pressure tested though so might take it somewhere to get that done and I'll change the sensor and sender too just incase. Thanks for your help dude. I'll post up how I go

 

[Brett_jjj]

You said they didnt replace the thermostat.Was this the same place that did the inlet manifold gasket.I wonder if they just removed the thermostat and left the old gasket in.Ive seen it happen heaps of times,and from places you would not expect things like that to go on at.(Dealers etc)

 

[whitevrboi]

Yea it was the same place n yea they replaced the gasket, when i pulled it out this morning it was one of those self adhesive ones but he didnt take the plastic backing off...dont think i'll be taking my car there again...

 

[moff_man]

what Ive been reading lately and a few cars Ive worked on, vr and vs have 9 out of 10 miss leading guages. i had one car that would put the fan on at 3/4 to red and the tech 1 was saying bang on 109 deg c. my old equip was the same, thought the engine was cooked at 3/4 but it was still 90 deg c replaced the engine for noisy balance shaft Bering's (so new set of sensors on the new engine) it read 1/2(L3 dash). my new berlina with std L3 dash never gets above 1/2 in traffic and sits at 1/4 driving (i think its too low causing high fuel consumption but thats another story).

there is a difference in the car overheating and the gauge i.e. you thinking the car is overheating.

also the other thing is radiators, blocked partly blocked flow of the radiator and the like can cause the car to overheat. even flushing the radiator sometimes wont clean them out, and i have seen car run cooler after fittment of a new unit.

sorry to be rabbiting on but from what Ive seen and read the gauges are usually to blame.

 

[whitevrboi]

Thanks for that moff_man, it pretty much backs up what i was thinking-that it was the sensor/sender playing up. I will change them over at some stage when i can find time. Luckily for me i wired in a switch to the computer to turn my fan on and off whenever i like so thats got me out of trouble a few times. Most of my trips are only short and the long ones i do are all highway. Thanks heaps for the input

Cheers Jack