If you drive a car, truck, or utility vehicle that has 100,000 miles on the odometer, it’s possible that the thermostat will go bad sooner rather than later. Generally, this cooling system part lasts about 10 years. After this duration, it will start to malfunction and leak and cause your engine to overheat. Journey Auto Repair can remove the factory thermostat and replace it with one that you can count on for another decade. If you notice any of the following problems, your thermostat is going bad.
Corrosion on the Thermostat Housing
One of the first things that can happen with an older thermostat is that it can spring a slow leak. In other words, the thermostat will be leaking but you won’t know it because there won’t be spots on the garage floor. This slow leak allows the coolant that is seeping out of the thermostat to pool against the thermostat’s metal housing. Unfortunately, this will corrode the housing and ruin the metal. In fact, if you don’t replace the thermostat when it is leaking slowly, the corrosion will eat through the metal.
Leaking Coolant on the Garage Floor
Once this happens, you will know that your thermostat is leaking because you will see coolant on the garage floor. Depending on the extent of the damage, it may only be coolant spots or a puddle of engine coolant. Regardless of the size of the leak, the cooling system now has less coolant in it than it did before. This can affect the cooling system’s ability to keep your engine’s temperature in the normal range. Your vehicle is at a high risk of overheating if there is a low level of coolant in the engine.
Unpredictable Temperature Changes
You may also start to notice that the temperature gauge needle is moving up and down while you are driving. This movement can indicate that the thermostat is malfunctioning.
For example, the thermostat may be unable to read that your engine is getting too hot and fail to release the coolant. When this happens, the temperature gauge will rise into the red range.
At some point, the thermostat will understand that the engine is overheating and release coolant, but it may release too much of it. When this happens, your engine will run too cold. As the thermostat continues to malfunction, your engine will overheat all the time.
Call Journey Auto Repair in New Hope, MN, today if you are having any of the problems described above. We can test your thermostat and replace it if it needs it.