Hello AZine members!

The temperature gauge on my 00 TL started acting strange. The needle usually sits slightly below the halfway point of hot and cold. Today while stuck in traffic the needle started to fluctuate and at one point got up to 3/4 to hot. I parked my car and turned the engine off but my radiator fans kept going much longer than usual.

Im hoping its just the thermostat and not somwthing more serious i.e: heater core, radiator etc. Any thoughts?

 

My '00 did the same thing on a really hot day last year while idling; I changed the thermostat and it never happened again. 12 years is a lot of time on a thermostat.

Just make sure that both fans are running properly...

 

Great, thanks.

I heard if you put the thermostat in boilin water you can tell if it has gone bad, is this a true statement?

 

You can, but why bother with a 10+ yr thermo. They are cheap. Just get a new one with new upper & lower rad hoses. The hoses are at the end of their life.

 

you have a bad fan temp sensor- it controls driver side-main cooling fan
'its not running when needed and runs after shutdown
on the 00 its located lower right rear corner of radiator
screws in get at any parts store