I drove the car for the frst time since the weather cooled off. I drove for almost an hour and the temp stayed down and never got too high like usual. The heater was blowing 60 degree out the vents and the car seems is running with a little power loss. I am thinking stuck open thermostat, faulty temp sensor or heater core issue. What do you guys think? Also if the sensor in the water pump is faulty will this cause issues since the car doesn't know the temp so it can't adjust correctly?

 

I'm pretty sure a stuck open stat could not keep it so cool that you can only get 60F air from the heater on full hot. Sounds like no coolant flow through the heater core, or maybe just a broken heater temp control cable. Sensor could not cause you to lose heat, either, IMO.

Coolant full and bled? No overheating or steam? Recent coolant refill? Temp **** feel normal?

Also, you said "I drove for almost an hour and the temp stayed down and never got too high like usual." Do you mean it used to show too hot on the gage, and without doing anything, now it does not? If so, how hot was it getting before, and now? If it was overheating previously, maybe you have lost a lot of coolant, and both the sensor and heater core are running dry.

 

The dash gauge never goes over 170 and it use to go up to 190 and down on a usual basis. The thermostat is a 160 degree but it stays low and doesn't do what it did when i first installed it. I noticed the fans haven't come on for a week and that is not normal.

 

It could also be a possibility that you have a problematic temp sensor that gives the input to the dash gauge. If you have a mulitmeter, Shoebox has a table of values that you can compare to and see if your sensor falls within spec.

 

did you have heat and then lose it if ya did it could be cavitating <getting air bound> from low coolant due to leak or even a head gasket at the extreme end im thinkin low or no coolant if its not even heating up