New thermostat needed?

[terilee29]

Here's the situation:

I know I need a new blower motor. However, on the highway, the heat actually wafts out quite a bit, so that alone wasn't a big deal.

Some time over the winter, the heat completely stopped coming out (even on the highway)...found out the coolant was empty. Filled the radiator up again, and got the heat back (strange cuz there's no leaks on the ground).

Now when I drive, I have to keep the heat turned all the way up or I smell burning antifreeze and see a bunch of steam by the time I get a few blocks away (not gonna be fun running with the heat on all summer).

This is the weird part...when I smell burning antifreeze, I haven't driven far enough to even get the engine warm, the temp gauge on the dash hasn't risen at all (but it does go up and down like normal when driving with the heat on), and I can take off the radiator cap and stick my finger in the coolant (it's full to the top, AND it's not even luke warm).

Any idea what's going on? New thermostat? It's possessed??

(Also, my A/C also stopped working last summer, but I'm not sure if that's related.)

 

[nolimitssjca]

You can't go wrong by starting with a new thermostat. Sounds like you have several issues to work out.

 

[Willard]

check to see if the oil has any antifreeze in it. you might have a bad headgasket

 

[terilee29]

Yeah, a guy at work is suggesting thermostat too...he's says if the thermostat is stuck shut, then some part of the system can overheat even if the radiator as a whole is still luke warm....?

As for antifreeze in the oil....we just had the oil changed, and the oil change dudes didn't mention that anything out of the ordinary was going on in there. I would think they'd mention something like that...where we go, they're very good about stuff like that.

So now, any idea where the thermostat is located on a '96 XLT? And please tell me it's not as 'easy' to get to as the spark plugs are....arrgh.

Thanks!

 

[aldive]

If in doubt, change it out.

Good luck ....