[s-cars] Expected Life of thermostat and/or MFTS

[Varon H. Fugman]

>>Although both of these beauties were changed two years ago, I just
noticed that my temperature on the highway is only 60 deg C with maybe
75 C around town (as opposed to 90 C normally).

Are both the temperature gauge and Area 51 reading low?  Then it probably is
the thermostat stuck open.  The 87C thermostat I put it (preventative
maintenance) 4 1/2 years ago is still working fine for me, but I don't
remember if it is OEM or aftermarket.  Figure I will change it again next
time I do the timing belt and water pump (still another year or two down the
road I hope!)

Note that that Area 51 only gives valid readings when the climate control is
operating.  If the climate control is off, a valve shuts off the coolant
flow through the heater core and thus past the sensor in the heater hose
(between the rear of the engine and the firewall).

Caused some panic for me a couple months ago when I was monitoring Area 51
after having flushed the cooling system... shut off the climate control to
go through the car wash, and the Area 51 temperature started going down.  I
was worried that I was loosing coolant!

Varon
'95 S6 with bright shiny new blue coolant and lots of new hoses

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