Autochoke / temp sensor question

matt_fsr

matt_fsr

matt_fsr

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20 Jul 2005
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Durham
I've picked up a Mk3 Mondeo in the middle of last week, seems to be a pretty nice lil car for what we want, recently had lots of new brake parts and drives great.

Only query I have though is that the temperature gauge seems to be somewhat dodgy, it takes forever to lift off the bottom, and I've also seen it drop down again partly while still driving.

I'm not bothered about it, the heater works so clearly the engine is warming up fine - but would the faulty temp gauge be affecting anything else, the immediate thing to mind being the autochoke? i.e. would it cause the car to run on an unduly rix mix of petrol/air and therefore be wasting fuel?
 
The fact that you can get warmth out of the heater does not mean the thermostat is working correctly, and the symptoms certainly point to a thermostat that is stuck partially open.

If the engine is running too cool then fuel consumption will increase, as will engine wear.
 
Thermostat failure is fairly common on these engines.

There's 2 thermostats - one at the water outlet at the right hand side of the engine (looking directly at it when in front of the car).

There's also an oil cooler thermostat just on the water pump near the centre of the front of the engine. Either of these could cause the issues - I've had both fail on me and give similar results - the engine takes longer to warm up and when it does get warm, it gets cold under low load.
 
Thanks DaveyD.

As with all cars I own I plan to get a Haynes manual for it pretty soon, but are they easily fixed by someone who knows the correct end of a spanner? :)
 
Cheers for that, though they're both for the diesel engine - mine's the 1.8 Duratec petrol.

Would the thermostats be in the same location? Hopefully I'll get to do this and give it a service at the weekend.
 
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