I have an electric WP with the mods in my sig. I drove the car about 350 miles this weekend. Part of the drive was in the California desert in the afternoon. The outside temps were in the 110+ range. During that time, the engine temps stayed about 190 or so with the A/C running full blast.

Yesterday morning, I took my brother to the airport. It was only about 60 outside, but the car ran warmer (about 200 or so) than it had the day before when it was 110 outside.

I have noticed some variation in temps with the car now. It never gets even to the halfway mark on the gauge, but it definitely runs hotter than it did stock.

Any ideas what might be causing the car to run hotter in cooler weather? I am wondering if the thermostat is bad. When they did the install, they didn't replace it because it looked fine, although I had asked them to replace it anyway.

BRAD

 

A) Short of dropping it in a pan of boiling water to see if it opens, there's no way to tell if a thermostat is good just by looking at it, as far as I know.

B) Are you sure your cooling system had all the air bled out of it by the shop that did the work? Air trapped in the system could be causing the high temperatures and irregular readings.

They should have replaced the thermostat per your request. It's not a high cost item and if you've gone to the trouble of taking it out to look at it, you might as well replace it. Doesn't sound like the shop that did the work was really interested in doing the job right, if you ask me.