850 stays cold

Motor never really heats up. Only sometimes when in city traffic. On highway
stays under 20% or so..
Thermostat broken? Not the pump nor a leak cause it would run hot, wouldn't
it?
Can only think of a faulty reading or a cooling system that does everything
it can to keep cooling down the engine...
Weird. I don't hear the fan running when i shut down the engine, which would
happen after a hot ride on a warm day..

Any thoughts??

Ps should i worry and stop driving now?

 

[bart] (Sun, 02 Jan 2005 22:07:28 +0100):

Change thermostat first, easiest and cheapest solution

 

Sure sounds like the thermostat isn't closing completely. It won't do any
damage, but the fuel consumption is higher when the engine isn't up to full
temperature.

Mike

 

It could easily be caused by an engine coolant thermostat which has failed
open. My 850 had exactly that failure a few years ago.

Luckily these are easily replaced on a Volvo 850.

John

 

Yes!

Gert

 

The thermosatat on our '95 850 was doing the same thing. The funny
thing is that it passed emissions test before they noticed they needed
to replace the thermostat. We had a really mild fall, so it wasn't too
noticeable. Our symptoms were that the temperature gauge would not come
up at all for several miles. It normally starts coming up in 1 mile and
is up to its normal stable point in 2 miles.

 

Several people have suggested replacing the thermostat, so I will
not repeat that suggestion. My addition to that suggestion is
- at the same time that you replace the thermostat, consider flushing
and replacing the coolant.

No, I drove with a "bad" thermostat (one that wouldn't close fully)
for 2 - 3 months, with no adverse effects that I know off. My
fuel efficiency (in city driving in Chicago with 2 - 10 mile trips)
didn't change much if at all when the thermostat didn't close completely
(stayed ~18 mpg).

Beverly

 

As others have said, it's the thermostat.

The fan runs because your car is a little bit smart. The fuel injection
computer expects the engine to warm up at a certain rate. If it
doesn't, then it doesn't assume that the thermostat is faulty, it
assumes that the temperature sender is faulty, so it doesn't really know
engine temperature and runs the fan to be safe. Usually it turns the
check engine light on as well...

--
Mike F.
Thornhill (near Toronto), Ont.

Replace tt with t (twice!) and remove parentheses to email me directly.
(But I check the newsgroup more often than this email address.)

 

in artikel schreef Mike F op
"mikef2316()"@allsttream.nett op 03-01-2005 16:18:

Thanxx a lot all. Gonna change it soon!
Feul consumption does seem to be a bit higher than usual indeed..

Bart!