Ok, in my hatch I'm having a problem with it not warming up, all the way. unless it sits for a while. I replaced the rad hoses, thermostat(180), water pump, heater hoses, and the coolant(or anti-freeze). I noticed that I have no heat until like half way home (bout 7 miles or so) at which point the gauge is at the middle of the C. when I get home it might be at the top of the C if I'm lucky. when I let it heat up too the middle of the gauge the fan turns on and it cools down. ok so whats wrong? and what can I do to fix it?

When you first start your car, do you hear a wooshing sound usually Drivers side to passenger side?

 

If so you got air in the cooling system when you changed the thermo and the water pump

 

Try parking your car on a fairly steep grade so the front of the car is higher then the back... Take your Radiator cap off, turn your heater on full blast full heat and let the car warm up to operating temp.... as it gets hot, slowly pour antifreeze into the radiator (can't stress SLOWLY enough) do this for about 10 minutes and it should burp the air bubble out of the heating system..

 

Also you can try putting a 195 thermostat in there.. I put a 180 in my car last week and it never even gets close to 1/3 hot..

 

Also if where you live is cold (< 20 F) put a piece of cardboard over half your radiator.. Make sure you dont put it over where the electric fan is though.. I did that and it seemed to help..

so would air in the system keep it from heating up?

good point.. didnt think about that.. lol....

Put a testing wire on the intake temp sensor and ground it out.. See if your temp gauge goes all the way up.... your car could be getting up to normal operating temp and the gauge might not be working...

 

Also like I said 180's make your car run ALOT cooler...

It sure does.

Do you have any heat?

Torxxx is on the money.

The book does call for a 195* thermostat.

You should'nt need the cardboard trick in GA.

btw, JWX, your email is still bouncing. Is there another one?

it had a 180 in it before and that one opened at about 175 if I remember correctly (I tested it in a pot of hot water with a meat thermoitor(sp)) and ya I have heat pretty good heat after a while which is why I say its just not heating up fast enough. and the temp sender is brand new and I've had a manual gauge on it and it did the same thing. and I thought about the cardboard trick but wasn't sure about it.

 

 

 

and you can can try my yahoo mail one if you want its justin_shahan@yahoo.com if not could you host it on the board and when I look at it you could delete it.

well then what are you worried about? your car runs cold.. Soobs run better cooler... .my gauge NEVER gets above 1/3 since I fixed it and it runs about 5 x better..

 

As long as you have good heat comin off the heater.. I wouldnt worry too much

but, is this too cold? and it takes a while for heat.

180's can be too cold for the winter time. I had a 180 and it wasn't right how cold it was. It would take about 20 miles on the free before it was warm enough to defrost the windshield, and that's after warming it up. I've got a 190 in the other car and it's way warmer, 20 minutes of warming up and it's nice and toasty in the car. I'm going to change out the 180 tomarrow, and if it makes a difference (which I'm sure it will), I'll let ya know. But I'm suspecting you've prolly got the same problem.

Ohkay, I replaced the 180 thermostat with a 192 one, there is a definate difference. It gets warmer in the morning, and stays warmer too. Before it would just barely get warm inside the car, but now it definatly does get pretty toasty, I actually had to turn down the heater and pop open the moonroof, it's amazing whot only 12 degree's will do, but definatly worth it!!

it had a 180 in it before. but I'll try another one. did you notice any diffrence in how it performed with the 192 in it? anybody know if they make a 190 for our cars?

Hey JWX I'm glad im not the only one who hears a swoosh of water and freezes his jewels off or dodges frozen windows I'll try the hill parking trick cause I have done all the above including last week the CARDBOARD:D

Nope, no difference in performance. Just a whole heck of a lot warmer. Did you change the radiator or any other major components this year? That can make a world of difference. I've got a brand new radiator in there, with the old one a 180 was just fine, and sometimes not low enough, (as to be expected with a bum radiator). When I first started mine this morning I turned off the radio and everything, sure enough, there was a slight wooshing from the heater core, which is interesting cause I used a power bleeder on my cooling system. But it was only for a slight second and haven't heard it since. It may have something to do with it sitting, I dunno though.

I replaced the water pump.

my car has a brand new radiator, water pump, and thermostat. the stat is 180 degrees and my heater is not as warm as it's supposed to be. I'm thinking about swapping in a 195 until it warms up again. the car warms up reasonably quickly though.