Do i have a bad thermostat or something else?

[stivine6]

Kind of an urgent question

On my way to work today and had my heater on full blast, throughout 15 minutes of driving the heater was cold. So when i got to work i popped opened the hood and all the coolant in the reservoir was gone, it must've spilled through the top cap through the small hose because the coolant was over the bottom left of the car and some splattered onto the battery tray.

I am really hoping it isn't a bad head gasket or i am screwed.

The car didn't have any excessive white smoke out the exhaust and the temperature gauge didn't go past the normal zone (just right under half).

Any thoughts? Stuck open thermostat possibly?

 

[IshSonP5]

could be a stuck thermostat. Pull it and see if it triggered it's failsafe for overheating (if yours has that). If it did overheat it could have ruined your headgasket....or nothing that bad, i dunno. Just went through the same thing myself, ruled out head gasket with a tester and now I am stuck. So good luck and i'm subbing for a result

 

[DOMO]

from experience on my parents cars i say mabe a leak. you should top it up and check under the car ( while the car is on and after a bit of driving). if you cant see from top id say jack it up and turn it off cuz my mom drives a caravan so i can easily go under it, u on the other hand im not sure or not. but still get under the car and see if u can pinpoint a location where its leaking. it can be an old rad hose which is easy to change or it can be worse like a hole in the rad. for my mom she was lucky it was a hose so i just swapped it out but for u id think its not that serious just check the hoses for a leak.

if it was ur thermostat that was bad the car would overheat in most cases but the lack of fluid in you case means a leak! gl dude

 

[stivine6]

could be a stuck thermostat. Pull it and see if it triggered it's failsafe for overheating (if yours has that). If it did overheat it could have ruined your headgasket....or nothing that bad, i dunno. Just went through the same thing myself, ruled out head gasket with a tester and now I am stuck. So good luck and i'm subbing for a result

I am hoping for thermostat or i'm really screwed. I;ve been good and saving up for school and everything do i don't want to dump everything into the car. How do i check if it has a fail safe?

What are some symptoms for a bad head gasket for the protege?

 

[IshSonP5]

I am hoping for thermostat or i'm really screwed. I;ve been good and saving up for school and everything do i don't want to dump everything into the car. How do i check if it has a fail safe?

What are some symptoms for a bad head gasket for the protege?

you have to pull the thermostat so you can see if it is stuck, if it's stuck open then the car overheated at some point. However it's weird how your coolant temperature sensor has the car at the normal op temp yet no coolant going through the heater core...So check for leaks as stated above.

A head gasket failure would be, white smoke with a sweet smell, Coolant overheating and boiling, and water from exhaust tip

 

[stivine6]

you have to pull the thermostat so you can see if it is stuck, if it's stuck open then the car overheated at some point. However it's weird how your coolant temperature sensor has the car at the normal op temp yet no coolant going through the heater core...So check for leaks as stated above.

A head gasket failure would be, white smoke with a sweet smell, Coolant overheating and boiling, and water from exhaust tip

Is it possible that it was a cold day and the motor just didn't get to the critical zone? I drove it about 15 minutes to work and back with a 9 hour gap in between.

 

[CTt3P5]

I'm thinking you may have a leak as well. My rad has a small hole in the top and I have to top off the coolant resovoir from time to time.

 

[stivine6]

I'm thinking you may have a leak as well. My rad has a small hole in the top and I have to top off the coolant resovoir from time to time.

i hope not.. i will try to get the thermostat done asap. I'm having a hard time detecting any leaks i realized the reservoir over flowed and forced its way out through the cap on top of the bottle and ran down to the plastic black shields. Since i have refilled it it hasn't overflowed and don't see coolant anywhere.

Trying to make myself feel better by hoping for a thermostat!!!

 

[CTt3P5]

Thinking you would have overheated though if it was the t-stat? Since refilling has the level in the resovoir gone down at all?

Mine failed a few years ago and the car overheated right away. After replacing it, it was still a bit off so I ended up changing the coolant temp sensor and all was well. Might want to check that out as well.

 

[stivine6]

Thinking you would have overheated though if it was the t-stat? Since refilling has the level in the resovoir gone down at all?

Mine failed a few years ago and the car overheated right away. After replacing it, it was still a bit off so I ended up changing the coolant temp sensor and all was well. Might want to check that out as well.

I'm thinking i have a fail-safe thermostat so its stuck open to prevent overheating, i was reading more about it so thats what i am hoping for

Since refilling it has only gone down when the car is cooling down, stops mid level between full mark and low mark. Nothing below that D: When it warms up the coolant rises a bit

Is that normal?

 

[Mookhaasa]

Not that you want to...but you could drain your oil and see if you have a milk shake or not. you would notice right away if coolant has been churned up with oil.

If it looks normal, fill the loss of oil with some fresh stuff(never hurts).

In my 240sx if the stat gets stuck open or if the fan clutch dies, it just takes a while to heat up, but then again they have iron blocks and heat up pretty quick when everything is working right.

If its blowing out the rad cap, either its broken or the cooling system is get presurrized somehow, whether its straight boiling or if the cooling system is leaked into from the compression but just slight enough that coolant isn't able to easily get into the oil( seen that on a volvo).

 

[CTt3P5]

Could have a fail safe....do you know for a fact if the t-stat was ever changed by a po?

 

[stivine6]

Not that you want to...but you could drain your oil and see if you have a milk shake or not. you would notice right away if coolant has been churned up with oil.

If it looks normal, fill the loss of oil with some fresh stuff(never hurts).

In my 240sx if the stat gets stuck open or if the fan clutch dies, it just takes a while to heat up, but then again they have iron blocks and heat up pretty quick when everything is working right.

If its blowing out the rad cap, either its broken or the cooling system is get presurrized somehow, whether its straight boiling or if the cooling system is leaked into from the compression but just slight enough that coolant isn't able to easily get into the oil( seen that on a volvo).

That's true, its about time for an oil change anyways so i might go ahead and do that tomorrow if i have time. But from the dipstick the oil looks normal as well, but of course that can be hard to tell.

Nothing is coming out the rad cap if that's important. At the moment nothing seems out of the ordinary which is what is really throwing me off

Could have a fail safe....do you know for a fact if the t-stat was ever changed by a po?

I have no clue actually but from the looks of it where the piping is, it doesn't look like its been touched for quite some time (rust and overall condition of the bolts and piping connecting to the thermostat)

 

[cornrickey]

If your tstat stuck open then coolant would be free flowing, the exact opposite of what would cauae a overheating situation. If you run it out of coolant it won't show a temp on the gauge. You can have a warped head and/or a leaking head gasket that doesn't cause milky oil or dream in your exhaust. You can have exhaust leak into the coolant system through the head gasket causing a heating issue. Sometimes you can see it bubbling in the radiator. I'd pull the plugs to see if there are deposits on them. How much coolant is in the actual radiator?

 

[stivine6]

Well i got my thermostat replaced and a coolant flush through the whole system. So far so good i am hoping that is the end of it..

When i pulled over at work and check the radiator it was low but there was definitely coolant still inside because when i refilled the system on the spot i used maybe a quarter of a bottle or less. Also the only issue i had was no heat in the car, my temp gauges never went past the normal zone. (just right under half mark)

And one more thing was when i pulled over and popped open the hood, i checked to feel how hot the motor was and it was just mildly warm, usually i cant put my hands for that long after a 15 minute drive but i was able to leave my hand on and it was just warm.

 

[KCKrogoth]

As far as the heater goes...have you ever pulled your center radio bezel off without disconnecting the AC/Heater controls? Reason I ask is because one of the cables that ran to the temp control switch came undone when I pulled off the Bezel and I had no heat because the knob didn't move the cable because it popped off the clip. Kind of a random thought, but worth checking real quick. Should be able to see the black cable under the drivers side.

 

[stivine6]

As far as the heater goes...have you ever pulled your center radio bezel off without disconnecting the AC/Heater controls? Reason I ask is because one of the cables that ran to the temp control switch came undone when I pulled off the Bezel and I had no heat because the knob didn't move the cable because it popped off the clip. Kind of a random thought, but worth checking real quick. Should be able to see the black cable under the drivers side.

thanks for the suggestion, i never removed the bezel though so it can't be it. Plus i had heat as soon as i got more coolant in. So far so good i haven't run into the same problem again.

I had a mechanic take my car while i was work and he put some stupid stop leak s*** in there, ended up having to flush out the whole coolant system and refilled while i replaced my thermostat. Lesson learned, first and last time i let just any mechanic take a look at my car. Sticking with my local mechanic near my house that i trust :@!

 

[KCKrogoth]

Well that explains it...don't use that stop leak stuff man, that crap will mess up all kinds of stuff, it's good for only an emergency fix, but that's about it....Good to hear its all working then!

 

[stivine6]

Well that explains it...don't use that stop leak stuff man, that crap will mess up all kinds of stuff, it's good for only an emergency fix, but that's about it....Good to hear its all working then!

Thanks man! And well that stuff was put in after the coolant came spilling out causing me to lose heat and scaring me thinking my car was in big trouble. Hence I called enterprise mechanic since I work there and couldn't leave and he took my car away for a quick fix.

After work I decided to head to my own mechanic just to double check and be on the safe side. I was asking about the possibility of head gasket issues and they highly doubt it as I didn't have any of those symptoms. So they definitely. Weren't trying to milk me or scare me unlike the mechanic at enterprise :/

 

[CTt3P5]

Wait, the mechanic at the place where you work was trying to milk you or am I reading that all wrong?

Glad you got it all straightened out though.