So as some of you may have read, my thermostat fused itself open a few days ago and my car has been running cold when im on the highway. I would've fixed it myself but its cold, so I'm going to my shop in Brooklyn tommorow to have them do it.

BUT for now, because its getting really cold and might snow tommorow, my mechanic suggested an easy fix. He told me to tape a piece of cardboard over half of the radiator to limit the amount of air coming in, hopefully letting my car heat up a bit. I just did and am about to go for a test drive to see if it worked.

Anybody have any similar stories of bootleg repairs, or suggestions for/against this? Im a little worried the cardboard might catch fire or something, although thats pretty unlikely...

 

this is pretty common temp fix, truckers do it all the time in the cold months.

 

lol that's pretty awesome. i've never had to do a bootleg fix and hope i never have to. but living in minnesota, i cant ever count it out

 

Im sure its colder in MN but it was 27 today when I took the car out. It stayed at 1/4 on the temp dial, and went up a little less than 1/2 so i guess its OK, im getting it fixed tommorow, so I should be fine

 

yea, many trucks and older cars do this method to prevent the cool air in the winter to go thru the rad...seen it many times this winter

 

we do it in karting to keep the temp up when its cold out. but we use blue tape or duct tape. we dont have a thermostat so its constantly running through the system

 

Well It seems like a straight forward enough idea, tommorow im gonna try a bigger piece to hopefully get up to a little less than 1/2 on the radiator like it usually is. Right now I have less than of the rad covered, and everything behind the grill is exposed.

 

you do know not to place anything on the radiator itself right? Or your thermostat will no longer be the big problem smoldering by the side of the road!

Block the ~grill inlet~ with cardboard!

 

yes thats what truckers do, not right one the radiator... put a cover over the front grill

 

dont block the whole radiator just some of it. youll be okay. and truckers cover the grill because its simply much easier to cover that than try and get behind the front clip. and what truckers use is a net to keep the bugs off the radiator over thier thousands of miles of driving

 

OK i got my T-stat changed, it was $60 with labor for a german aftermarket piece, shop says its as good as OEM, plus the dealer is closed today...