How cold is too cold?

[Yonkers320is]

if you let the car idle, does the temperature get any higher? If you are not moving, the engine temp should climb. on mine it stays at the 1/4 when moving, and almost half when sitting (I have a bad Thermostat, will change tomorrow).
You may have a stuck clutch fan, overcooling the engine. Can you feel any heat on the hoses? if you grab them can you hold them for more than 5 seconds?
and as other people said: an engine not working at operating temperature will wear sooner, and cause all kinds of drivability proiblems.....

[lolcantturn]

if you let the car idle, does the temperature get any higher? If you are not moving, the engine temp should climb. on mine it stays at the 1/4 when moving, and almost half when sitting (I have a bad Thermostat, will change tomorrow).
You may have a stuck clutch fan, overcooling the engine. Can you feel any heat on the hoses? if you grab them can you hold them for more than 5 seconds?
and as other people said: an engine not working at operating temperature will wear sooner, and cause all kinds of drivability proiblems.....

Well yes the temp gauge does rise a little when it's just sitting, like in traffic. And the hoses are real hot.

[DivineStyler]

have you guys ever heard any benefits of putting 2 small holes on each side of the thermostat? If so what function or effect would result?

maybe an improper bleeding of the coolant?

[e30trooper]

My heater dosnt get that hot. No leaks , temp sits a hair past the middle. Maybe the temp sensor?
-Ben

[DivineStyler]

My heater dosnt get that hot. No leaks , temp sits a hair past the middle. Maybe the temp sensor?
-Ben

you are over heating... maybe it was not properly bled...? My heater was cold during the bleeding process but warmed up once all the air was removed from the system...

????

[CorvallisBMW]

My heater dosnt get that hot. No leaks , temp sits a hair past the middle. Maybe the temp sensor?
-Ben

I'm going to go with incomplete bleeding. Get the front end of the car up and bleed again.

[twitch]

my car sat just below the halfway mark then my timing belt went.I put on a rebuilt head with a new thermostat and it went down to just above the quarter mark.now i just changed my water pump and it sits just below the quarter mar.WTF!?

[lolcantturn]

my car sat just below the halfway mark then my timing belt went.I put on a rebuilt head with a new thermostat and it went down to just above the quarter mark.now i just changed my water pump and it sits just below the quarter mar.WTF!?

Yeah mine still runs cold..I gotta fix that soon simply because maybe my heat will come out hotter..it's ok warm at this point but nothing to be proud of. and cause its still running rich lulz.

[AndrewBird]

A leak in the coolant system somewhere will make it run cold. If the system can't build up pressure, then the coolant will boil sooner and therefore not get as hot.

[lolcantturn]

A leak in the coolant system somewhere will make it run cold. If the system can't build up pressure, then the coolant will boil sooner and therefore not get as hot.

I'm sure I don't have any leaks in my coolant system...any leak I ever had always resulted in a lot of pressure building up in my expansion tank and causing a hose to explode.

[AndrewBird]

You said there was a hissing coming from the coolant tank. I would consider that a leak.

[e30trooper]

you are over heating... maybe it was not properly bled...? My heater was cold during the bleeding process but warmed up once all the air was removed from the system...


????

gets a tat pass the middle, like a hair. get warm but never hot

I'm going to go with incomplete bleeding. Get the front end of the car up and bleed again.

I bought the car 2 months and havnt had time to do my run down on everything. Alot of work has been done on it. Fully rebuilt engine 3 years ago. The coolant looks like dex-cool ( redish coolant ) Im going to change the thermostat for 71* and flush the system and put in the green. That reminds me i might as well pick up a temp sensor since my idle is a lil lumpy ( 700-900sih)

[lolcantturn]

You said there was a hissing coming from the coolant tank. I would consider that a leak.

oh noooo, I fixed that already sorry haha.

[lolcantturn]

Picked up a coolant temperature sensor. Now it sits happily in the halfway mark when I'm in motion, and a little bit before the 3/4th mark in the temperature gauge when im in idle. I was actually getting real worried because I thought it was going to overheat but it just stays there.

[Uliv1c]

Did a headrebuild also an new radiator. An mine stays in the middle..