I searched, and i found out I'm not the only series 2 that gets the driver worried about heat.

mine gets driven, a LOT, mainly in town. it seems to be fine for the first part of the day, the temp will fluctuate between my 180* thermostat, and about 205, and it'll hold there.

i run the ac all the time, because its nice.

later in the day, the car (often in the same coffee shop drive thru) it will tap out around 230*ish, granted - not moving, sitting in a black car - in the sun - with the ac going.. and RELUCTANTLY creep its way back town to a solid 210*.

my a/c goes from freeeeezing cold, to, chilly... and i start to worry about which part of my 200,000mi car will explode under that pressure.




I don't want it to go over 200*, ever.. it'* bad for the A/C system (which , is brand new in my car.) it'* bad for the fisher price plenums. How do I accomplish this


thanks
Joe

Joe, don't stress it. The thermostat in your car is a 195 degree thermostat. However, the primary fan isn't set to kick on until your car gets to 225/230 degrees F (I forget which). The secondary fan is weaker than the primary, and is only activated either when the temperature gets extremely hot (past the 3/4 mark), or when the A/C is on. Considering how hot its been this year, this kind of behavior is perfectly normal. So long as your temperature never goes above 230, this heat fluctuation is perfectly normal.

One more thing I forgot to mention, I have heard of many people installing 210 degree thermostats in order to raise engine temperature to raise fuel economy. Your engine can operate at these temperatures perfectly well, and some cars will not function properly unless they are at 195F. The Bonneville GXP for example is set to run at 195F, and if you put a 180 degree t-stat in there, the car will start dumping fuel and take measures to raise the car'* temperature to 195.

ideally, you want as little heat flucutation as possible, meaning if it can be at any one number consistantly, that'* great. i don't like temps to swing any more than 15* above the stat, so i have the fan settings changed to reflect that.

and as andrei stated, the PCM WILL dump extra fuel/modify timing in an attempt to get it there unless you have that tuned out of the PCM. less fuel also gets injected at higher coolaent temps from AE in an attempt to make hotter running engines get better fuel economy as well, but once it gets too hot, the PCM will quickly increase the amount of AE fuel in an attempt to keep everything cool.

the car has a 180* t.stat, my other vehicles (ram pickup, couple vw'*, etc) always acted a lil peppier at lower temps.


the lss has the 180*, new water pump, new coolant temp sensor (there was a timeframe when my fans ONLY worked with the a/c, did not come on for any other reason... coolant temp sensor repaired that)

i also did a coolant flush with the water pump, (shop did, anyways) and my dex looks more like iced tea - has a couple floaters in the overflow bottle... definitely not fresh pink like it should be... but not disgusting.

i'm thinking of having another coolant flush done, just to prevent any 'chunks' in the rad or anywhere in the system.



i've also bled the cooling system, a few times, when it was extremely hot - and a little fart has come out on a few occasions, reducing the overall run temp to just around 205* on the guage... preventing the soar to 135*

^ 235*.


so, are y'all suggesting i go back to the 195* thermostat, and just stop giving a crap what my temp guage reads?

the other day, it was about 93* outside - i left it idling with the a/c on - in the sun - for about 10mins while i dropped tools to my employees - when i got back in, . the car temp guage was at Just below redline... that just seems ridiculous.

You could have a 160 or no t-stat at all, and your engine would still creep to 230 when you're sitting in the hot sun with your A/C on because your engine is working harder to keep your A/C compressor turning, and no air is going through your radiator. The primary fan is more powerful than the secondary that runs the A/C as well. My 95 Regal does it too, but that'* to be expected with a 5/8" thick radiator core. When was your last coolant flush done?

The engine is peppier at lower temps because your car is dumping more fuel as a result of the lower temperatures. As a result, you're also getting slightly lower fuel economy than you were with a 195 t-stat.

How are your temperatures while you're moving?

also - aside from being hotter run temp than any other car i've ever had - it does tend to fade the a/c when it gets real hot, i just can't understand how that could be good for the a/c cooling system - when it'* so hot under the hood that the a/c won't work properly inside the car... i mean, it'* still cool,air, but definitely not going to win any contest.

my vw diesel - for example, stays at 195* - all the time, winter - summer - humid - snowing - a/c on, a/c off, the needle never - ever - moves. apples/oranges, im well aware, its just what i'm used to - and the 3800 had me pretty freaked out when it was pegged the other day.


ps, is it true that the car will shut itself down at 260*?

i have NEVER seen a car kill itself due to coolant temp... otherwise a bad sensor could leave it in a no-start situation.

If your temperature is just below redline, something is indeed wrong. Your thermostat could be stuck, you could have a leak, or you could have air bubbles in the system. When the temp was right below the redline, were both fans running?