I'm experiencing a similar situation right now.
Previously, my car was warming up to L of NORMAL once getting off the highway or driving in city traffic. In 40-45 mph commutes it'd be around R. The low speed fan kicked in sometimes; and when it did, usually the temperature went down. The high-speed fan never kicked in. Last time I drove it that way I popped the hood and noticed bubbling in the coolant (not boiling; it went away as soon as I turned the car off). This problem began immediately post cleaning the engine, so water may have gotten in the sensors or something.
I searched and saw a recommendation by chongo to swap out the ECT sensor. My dad and I replaced the ECT sensor, thermostat, and waterpump (waterpump was unrelated to the problem; I just wanted the black-impeller out!), and changed coolant.
I believe this fixed my first problem - but since then, it's run almost consistently at A of "NORMAL", with bouts into L if you're sitting a while, or consistently at "M" if you turn the heat on. The low-speed fan kicks in after about ten minutes of driving the car, and the high speed fan not long after (although it won't if you keep the heat on). When the fans turn on, they blow cold air toward the engine .. I don't know if this is important, but it was mentioned in unisys's response in
this topic. The upper hose leading from the coolant reservoir is warm but not hot; the hose beneath it is cool to the touch. There is a larger hose near the waterpump (leading from the radiator I suppose?) that is burning hot. The coolant reservoir no longer bubbles at all, and I "think" we got all of the air bubbles out of the car when we changed the coolant.
Any chance we screwed up changing the thermostat, or the replacement thermostat was fubar'ed to begin with? We used a 180 degree, $7 Duralast thermostat from Autozone (
link ). I actually bought a second thermostat last night thinking we had put in a 192 degree one, but it turns out they're the same one. The 180 degree thermostat is minimally supplied around here evidently, I got the last one out of two Autozones.
Or is there another possibility to this problem? I have received strong advice from a fellow trusted CEGer that the radiator may be clogged with scale and is only flowing at part capacity, or is bad altogether. He recommended a pressure test and verifying the radiator flow rate (things I assume I need to get to a mechanic to have done).
Also - is it safe to drive the car semi-long distances in this condition? My dad insists I'm an idiot for wanting to take this car out and potentially spending hundreds of dollars to fix this temperature issue. I'm going to anyway, as I am incredibly uncomfortable with the fans coming on so quickly, but till then I need to drive it 1.5 hours round trip to work daily (30-45mph commute), and starting next week 1 hour round trip to college (mostly ~70mph highway commute).
If you need clarification, please let me know. Thanks
