Thermostat Housing [How to find Leakage & Replacement For Your Car]
Automotive mobiles have been revving and roaring on speedy wheels depending on its engine’s horsepower. The secret to the cooling of heated up engines beyond the melting point of ice is Thermostat Housing. Your majestic car is an epitome product of its engine counterpart and its complementarily assembled thermostat that surrounds the engine.
What does the Thermostat and Thermostat Housing in your car do?
While your engine gears up and reaches its operating speed, the thermostat allows the engine coolant to flow through. Till the engine is cool, the thermostat guards the engine against cooling down unnecessarily by stopping the coolant’s flow. Acting a valve to regulate the temperature of the radiator, thermostats are the utmost essential part of the whole integration under the hood.
A combustion engine’s optimum performance solely relies on thermostat’s effective cool down in case of the rise of temperature. The optimum operating temperatures are stabilized as fast as possible. Normally, it lasts throughout the engine’s lifetime however, without constant care and protection or under rough usage of the car, the thermostat can be damaged. In that situation, the thermostat is to be replaced.
Exploring Thermostat’s Types
Depending on the type of car you are riding, thermostats come in various forms with their own individual characteristics to perform the specified function.
- Cartridge thermostats
- Housing Thermostats
- Electrically heated thermostats
Anatomy of Thermostat
Thermostat Housing- Radiator Hose
- Thermostat Housing Plug
- Thermostat Housing Cover
Thermostat Housing is a wax-filled cylinder. It allows the coolant to pass through only when the radiator boils up beyond the designated operating temperature. In order for the valve to open, the wax melts and the hose expands for the free flow of coolant. Even though it comes in two settings: an integrated and standalone thermostat housing; both of them work in the same way.
Depending on the type of thermostat is embedded in your car; the procedure to fix the car’s cooling system may change. If you have a standalone system, you would have to guess around which housing is causing the leak and hence, the decreased cooling performance.
However, if you have an integrated system, a choice of all recent manufacturers, you only have to change the whole thermostat in a short timespan with reduced chances of missing the leak from the thermostat housing. It also minimizes the chances of possibly damaging other hoses during an exchange of thermostat housing. Moreover, integrated ones are cost-effective answers for car owners.
Detecting A Failing Thermostat Housing
Why is it important to look after your thermostat housing? Simply because initial damage detection with a careful eye can save you a huge expense of getting your car repaired. Since cooling agents are sitting at the top of the car’s engine to either side of the car, a frequent check inside the hood allows an easy check on your thermostat housing’s health.
An overheated car and leaked coolant dripping from your car are clear indicators of spoiled housing. Before thinking of going for a costly alternative of replacing the whole thermostat, consider changing the housing first. Your engine’s cooling capacity can be restored in easy steps at pocket-friendly prices.
Another option to detect possible flaws in your existent thermostat housing is if it causes pitting on the surface of the gasket. The acidic nature of the coolant erodes the hoses and gaskets, damaging itself as well as other items in its neighbors.
If any of these symptoms come forth, that is when replacing your thermostat housing is required.
Different Characteristics Of Thermostat Housing
Material
A user-friendly guide for thermostat housing shoppers is valuable information as housing comes in three materials: plastic composite, pot metal, and aluminum.Aluminum is the most durable choice and the most expensive of all is the best choice for cars with rough usage as it is resistant so damage. However, plastic composite is usually preferred by car manufacturers as it is not as breakable and pot metal. Plastic composite only gives up at high temperatures by becoming brittle and weak. Pot metal is the weakest choice of all that can break in two with a simple tap.
New or Used
If you are not looking for a repetitive investment on thermostat housing unnecessarily, do not opt for second-hand housing as there is little to no guarantee that it would not leak in a very short time. Therefore, it is better to invest once instead of wasting time on fixing second-hand housings repetitively.Universal or OE
If you plan on investing an hour or two into fixing the housing yourself in the garage, OE is the better choice compared to universal fits. OE housing is specially designed and shaped to be integrated into cars. Easy to attach and readily available to fit on your thermostat, OE is the prime choice.
How To Replace A Bad Thermostat
Having an overheated car during a long ride away from home can be troublesome when no mechanic or car repair shop is insight. Although your car does not eat or sleep, it requires much more attention than a pampered cat for it to keep running. Negligence costs a lot. You need not to worry yourself for a visit to the mechanic if you have the right tools and a few tricks up your sleeves.
- Pop the Hood and let the engine cool down.
- Before you do anything more, look at the coolant/antifreeze fluid. If it looks dirty, it should be flushed first. It’s better to flush the system with the old thermostat before changing it out.
- The coolant will need to be drained out. This is done by either removing the lower radiator hose or through the radiator drain valve.
- Find the hose that connects the radiator to the engine. Disconnect the hose clamp and remove the hose.
- To remove the housing you will need to remove the cover bolts first and then lift off the housing. Some newer cars may have a thermostat/housing combo.
- Take a pic with your phone of how the thermostat is oriented in the car before you remove it. This will help you make sure you’re installing the thermostat in the correct way.
- Remove the thermostat. Clean the sealing surface with a gasket scraper for best results.
- Install the new thermostat gasket using the pic you took of how the old thermostat was aligned.
- Now put the thermostat with the deeper, spring-side end towards the engine and the shorter end sitting in the housing. If the thermostat doesn’t sit flat, it’s not installed right.
- Put the thermostat housing back and then reattach the housing bolts tightening to 15 lb-ft. If you don’t have a torque wrench this is the same force needed to open the cap off a bottle of soda.
- Reattach the radiator hose from Step 4 and reapply the hose clamp.
- Refill the cooling system at this time. You’ll want to then start the engine and run it for about 10 minutes with the heat on to remove any residual air bubbles.
- Now you can take a drive to test if the repair was successful. Simply watch the engine temperature.
- After a few days of driving, be sure to check the coolant level again as you’ll likely need to top off the fluid.
Protecting the Environment and Car
Regular check-ups at the top of the engine that holds the thermostat gasket enable quick fixes to ensure effective performance of thermostat and regulate radiator’s temperatures. Such an approach causes small withdrawals from the pockets instead of paying a hefty amount for grand damage noted after it is too late.
