Thermostat/Overheat and Shifter replacement?

[GMSlam]

Hello all,

big opening story... questions I branched off below.

I have a 1996 GL 2.0L Auto. I just bought the car not too long ago. It has 62k miles on it.
To be brief I took the car for a test drive and the brakes blew out. But for the price I paid I was gonna fix them. It had new rear lines put on recently. Also a new wiring harness. I fixed the brakes, and after another 21 miles, the engine started to make a noise. I took it in to the local repair shop because I suspected timing belt.... After $1100. I had replaced the timing belt, water pump, timing sprocket, idler pulley, and some other various things. I'll get the bill and add anything I missed. They told me there was something funny with the fans, they werent coming on and could use a tune up. I found the fans werent coming on at all, and found a resistor that looked like it needed replaced on the assembly, the bolts had been broken previously and after a struggle I removed them and replaced it. The high (emergency?) fans started working but not the low fan speed. Which I went and tested all the wires, everything had power but not the ecm which i found used at a local junk yard. Upon replacing that the fans started working. Thank heavens. Anyway, I drove it from my rents house in Mantua to Akron. The whole time the heat was on, and the guage showed at the end of the tail on the L. I watched the guage the whole time, not really moving at all... when I was 10 mins away, I turned the heat off, and the guage began to rise again. I'm thinking it's either the guage or the engine is running hot? I havent tested it with a OBDII? thing yet but will do it tomorrow or sunday to find the actual temperature.

But what I was wondering is if there is any reason why not to change to a 180 degree thermostat?

Would it be simple to replace the shifter, the button sticks at times, and the shifter wont lock into gears, and the display is off. Sometimes D is Drive and sometimes N is drive. It seems shifting from Park that N is drive, and shifting up that D will be drive.


Thanks so much guys.

 

[GMSlam]

I figure list view is better

NEW:
battery
wiring harness (replaced within 6 months)
rear brake lines (1 year ago)
front brake lines
Water Pump
Timing belt
Timing tensioner
timing sprocket kit
Idler pulley
Resistor (on fan assembly)
Spark plugs & wires
and computer which controls the low fan but not the high fan? if that makes sense.

Car runs at the end tail of the L on the guage, I havent tested it with OBDII but will soon.

Is there any effects to switching to a 180 thermostat instead of a 195/190?

How easily would it be to change the shifter knob or fix if anyone knows any compatibility issues here?

 

[striker2]

i dont know enough about the ATX shift knobs to answer that one but the other 2 I can answer.

coolant gauge. first thing is to do what you are already planning and see what the actual coolant temp is. chances are its actually fine and the temp sensor for the gauge needs to be replaced. (yes there are 2 of them 1 for the PCM and 1 for the gauge) its located on the underside of the thermostat housing pointing forward.

dont bother switching to a 180 thermostat as the car will still run in the normal operating range, which is ~190-212 F. you will actually lose a bit of fuel economy by switching to the lower temp thermostat as it takes longer for the engine to get up to operating temp, which is where its peak efficiency is at.

 

[GMSlam]

Thanks Striker! Appreciate the help. That was kind of what I had thought. =) I'll let you know how it goes. hah

Anyone know about the shifter?

=)

 

[GMSlam]

So checked the car with the reader last week just havent had time to stop here. Indeed correct temp. Im gonna change the sensor and see where that guage points then.