Hey all Due to being a slack pri*k I havnt driven my zed in ages - so in a way this kinda serves me right. Car is trying to teach me a lesson. Anyways, 5 minutes from home and notice a rapidly rising temp gauge. So I pull over under a street light and get out the mobile phone for a lift. Whilst waiting for my support vehicle to arrive I pop the bonnet and check things out - the top rad hose had quite a lot of pressure, was warm. However radiator was only warm at the point where the hose joins it - the right hand side was still cold. Hmm I thought... interesting.... Cracked the cap slightly - out of interest - and car starts gurgling, with the entire radiator getting quite warm...very warm. So im sitting here having a beer and waiting a few hours before attempting to nurse it back to my drive way - thinking about what it could possibly be: - Blocked thermostat? It was running for 5 minutes earlier in the day, temp gauge didnt move... - Blocked radiator? - Blocked radiator hose? All of the above.... it was sitting for a while.... What say you tech heads? At least I know what Im doing tomorrow now! All I was doing was giving it some TLC and getting it ready to sell
The top hose was only warm but the temp gauge reading high, seeing the sender unit is in the top pipe could be faulty sender or gauge, Also sound like it could have had an air lock in the system when you cracking the radiator cap it released the air. If the thermostat was stuck, hot water wouldnt get to the sender unit to show high temp reading? Are you running an after market temp gauge off the head that gave you the reading. Will be interesting to see what you find
Eddie: 1 - not likely as the radiator was not hot. 2 - not ruling out an airlock 3 - truth? maybe not a blocked thermo then.... temp gauge was definitely working.... 4 - OEM gauges. I wasnt sure at what position in the system the thermo was located. By the sounds of all this it might just be a blocked upper hose/radiator. Regardless... pulling it all apart to see what I can see.
Some hard earned info here! http://www.aus300zx.com/forum/showthread.php?t=306874&highlight=idiots+thermostat
Save yourself the headache and fix all of it just to be safe if it hasn't been touched in a while... - New thermostat - New waterpump - New radiator cap - Flush/pressure test radiator & coolant system It's a lot harder to sell a car if it cooks its brains out!
I'll be doing a new thermostat for sure, about to go pick it up. The radiator, cap and pump are all less than 2 years old. just had the car idling for 10-15 and the temp gauge didnt move - so most likely is the thermostat... Now to see if i can get it done before it: a) gets dark. b) pisses rain. Dont like my chances.
You are correct, Carter. Thermostat is closed when engine is cold to help get to temp quicker, then opens to let coolant circulate. Andy, you said you would be picking the thermostat up off me at 1030 this morning. I don't see you
