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running temperature


Reido
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Hey guys where does your temp gauge sit when driving around? I havent driven my Pathfinder for a while cause i've been off at UW and now that I start driving it around in the summer heat it seems to be running hot. Maybe it's my imagination though. Mine seems to be around 1/3 off the way to hot when I'm just driving around town and about right in the middle when when climbing hills or on the freeways.

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What more could you ask for??

Sounds perfect to me, if any thing your thermostat may be opening a little early, it should stay around the middle of the gauge all the time, not just under high load. A littlle on the cold side of half way for normal running, and a little on the hot side of half way under high load is normal.

Mid way on the gauge is an indication that the engine has warmed up to its optimum opperating temp, and it should reach that point with in about 5mins of driving in normal conditions.

Don't loose any sleep over this one, but i must say full credit for being aware of minor changes in the behaviour of your engine!!!

Pete.

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alright cool. Thanks guys. I went ahead and flushed my system anyway. Probably about due for it in any case. I also checked and yeah you're right my thermo opens a little early but not enough to make me spend $20.

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mines at about a third on the highway and just under half in stop and go ... I tend to keep my electric fan a little more sensitive just in case ...

Mine is usually about 1/4, and never reached 1/3.... :D

 

 

But... the fan is always on!

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Guest staticpony5

You might want to listen for the cooling fan to shift into high. When the incoming air hitting the front of the fan clutch reaches a certain temp it will shift the fan into high and help cool the water in the radiator. You will know it because the fan will now run at speeds up to around 3000 rpm. and make a lot more noise. It usually does this when you are traveling at slow speeds with the AC on. If its not shifting into high your fan clutch may be out....

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The fan doesn't exactly shift into "high speed" mode... To put it more precisely, the fan clutch heats up, then locks up, which causes the fan to spin faster than it would with the fan clutch unlocked. With it unlocked, the fan freewheels on the clutch. That's how those work.

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Guest WhiteNismoPathfinder95

the way to tell if your fan clutch is working properly, is listen to see if it sounds like a 4.0L jeep cherokee.....you will hear more fan than engine.

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Guest GotPygmy93

Mine is always in the middle no matter where I go except for last week when I got a little leak in my radiator which was really fun to patch up it took about an hour of sottering

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  • 3 weeks later...

Mine sits really low. It's about 1/4 of the way most of the time, and never gets past 1/3. Maybe my T-stat is opening early/stuck open? :shrug:

 

If that's the case, what would be the negative effects it could have on my Pathy?

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Might as well toss in my $0.02 here too... immediately after I start driving somewhere, whether the car's been in the garage all night or sitting out in the sun, the temp. rises gradually from C to about halfway and sits there, never going much higher but not cooling down until I stop somewhere and it gets to sit awhile...

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Mine sits really low. It's about 1/4 of the way most of the time, and never gets past 1/3. Maybe my T-stat is opening early/stuck open? :shrug:

 

If that's the case, what would be the negative effects it could have on my Pathy?

If it's open, you could really cook that thinkg. If you see your gauge rise high get some air onto your rad. -- drive. Otherwise should be Ok but maybe not at highest efficiency which is about 1/2 way to hot.

 

my 2c

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an open thermo only has an effect when first starting or running in the winter. The function is to get the block up to temp soon after you start so it runs most efficiently and allows you to get some heat in the truck on those cold mornings. When it hits a certain temp, the thermo opens, allowing the temp to stabalize with cooling through the rad. IF you have a bad thermo, you can simply throw it away and don't put one back in (you'll need a gasket for the housing, though). Your engine will get no hotter than normal unless your thermo is stuck in the closed position and does not allow flow through the rad.

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I don't know where you guys are from but an open thermo around these winters, you'll never reach operating temps. Believe me, my f150 was that way for a while. In the summer you really could cook your engine if there isn't enough air flow to the rad, because you may never let the rad do it's job with an open coolant flow. On the other hand, a lot of construction machinery around here runs without thermos in the summer, but they are mainly in the open on in a traffic corque.

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my point was that you are not going to 'cook' anything if your thermo is stuck OPEN.

 

Stuck OPEN = may not reach op temp quickly or at all (no big deal)

Stuck CLOSED = Fry your engine

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Mine sits about a half cent. off the cool area and about alittle under half under pressure

and i think that my thermostat is off because every time I gas it the guage drops alittle and then returns to normal when i let off.

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