I bought a car with no heat working, found it had a locked open failsafe t-stat too. Replaced it with a stant OE and soon found out I had a leaky head gasket issue. Fun stuff.
My Motorad fail-safe thermostat also stuck open days after I installed it, but it was doing what it was supposed to do. My coolant level sensor blew off the radiator and I lost all my coolant, twice, and the second time almost instantly overheating the engine causing the new thermostat to fail-open. They are designed to fail-open when they overheat, which isn’t technically a “fail” since they are designed to do that. Even so, opening when it’s hot like it’s supposed to isn’t exactly a “failure” but getting stuck that way for no reason kinda is. The OEM thermostat from GM that it originally replaced was genuinely failed-open… just stuck open with no tabs holding it there. Even though the Motorad did what it was supposed to do, that was of limited usefulness since the overheat was caused by no coolant. Failing open doesn’t help when the overheat was caused by a lack of coolant so there isn’t any to circulate anyway. All failing-open did was lose the small amount of coolant that otherwise would have kept circulating in my two heater cores. :( I was able to reset the mechanism by tweaking those tabs so I could easily reinstall it but it seems pointless since it’s no more likely to “fail-open” during a real failure. I put in another… this time a standard Motorad. It really is a pain on the 1997-2005 GM minivans (Trans Sport, Montana, Venture, Silhouette). Hopefully the overheat didn’t do any damage.
My Jeep never overheated. It runs at the same temperature it always has turned this thing stuck open and my truck would not get over 120°. Mix that with winter weather at the time My heater wouldn't even work for an hour drive and a snowstorm. Replace the thermostat with another one from a different brand and not a feel safe no issue since
I went from a 91c to a 82c and no issues or change in fuel milage. Car runs cooler as well as the ZF Auto Tranny (also cooled by Coolant). Car goes better than ever, and still gets plenty hot.
It was the thermostat temp change that was the issue... It was the fact it was a fail safe style thermostat and once above the fail safe it locked open.
It was a faulty brand new part. Let me edit and add to this comment. It's not that it's a faulty part necessarily it's designed to lock open above 195 degrees, but the Jeeps runs around 210 degrees. so the thermostat acts as if the Jeep is overheating and locks in the open position.
@@sandratsgarage6783 are all made to lock at 195? I just ordered one for my crv and it was on to open up at 170. At least I hope it’s to open up and not lock open at 170
@@menaceemceefiend9716 they are set to open at the temperature you bought it at they are set to lock open I believe after hitting a certain point, but I don't know what the temperature is
I bought a car with no heat working, found it had a locked open failsafe t-stat too. Replaced it with a stant OE and soon found out I had a leaky head gasket issue. Fun stuff.
My Motorad fail-safe thermostat also stuck open days after I installed it, but it was doing what it was supposed to do. My coolant level sensor blew off the radiator and I lost all my coolant, twice, and the second time almost instantly overheating the engine causing the new thermostat to fail-open. They are designed to fail-open when they overheat, which isn’t technically a “fail” since they are designed to do that. Even so, opening when it’s hot like it’s supposed to isn’t exactly a “failure” but getting stuck that way for no reason kinda is. The OEM thermostat from GM that it originally replaced was genuinely failed-open… just stuck open with no tabs holding it there.
Even though the Motorad did what it was supposed to do, that was of limited usefulness since the overheat was caused by no coolant. Failing open doesn’t help when the overheat was caused by a lack of coolant so there isn’t any to circulate anyway. All failing-open did was lose the small amount of coolant that otherwise would have kept circulating in my two heater cores. :(
I was able to reset the mechanism by tweaking those tabs so I could easily reinstall it but it seems pointless since it’s no more likely to “fail-open” during a real failure. I put in another… this time a standard Motorad. It really is a pain on the 1997-2005 GM minivans (Trans Sport, Montana, Venture, Silhouette). Hopefully the overheat didn’t do any damage.
My Jeep never overheated. It runs at the same temperature it always has turned this thing stuck open and my truck would not get over 120°. Mix that with winter weather at the time My heater wouldn't even work for an hour drive and a snowstorm. Replace the thermostat with another one from a different brand and not a feel safe no issue since
I went from a 91c to a 82c and no issues or change in fuel milage. Car runs cooler as well as the ZF Auto Tranny (also cooled by Coolant). Car goes better than ever, and still gets plenty hot.
It was the thermostat temp change that was the issue... It was the fact it was a fail safe style thermostat and once above the fail safe it locked open.
Motorad/Stant is the same company! For ur info.
Is it possible your radiator has blockages, resulting in running a bit hot and tripping the fail safe to lock open?
I have heard the after the fact fail safe thermostat have had nothing but issues. Especially because my Jeep runs at 210 with the thermostat at 195.
By the way radiator is new and cooling system was flushed
why did it fail
It was a faulty brand new part. Let me edit and add to this comment. It's not that it's a faulty part necessarily it's designed to lock open above 195 degrees, but the Jeeps runs around 210 degrees. so the thermostat acts as if the Jeep is overheating and locks in the open position.
@@sandratsgarage6783 are all made to lock at 195? I just ordered one for my crv and it was on to open up at 170. At least I hope it’s to open up and not lock open at 170
@@menaceemceefiend9716 they are set to open at the temperature you bought it at they are set to lock open I believe after hitting a certain point, but I don't know what the temperature is
@@sandratsgarage6783 when it locked in 210 degrees, did it get stuck?