The main functions of the thermostat are to quickly warm up the car in low temperatures and protect the engine from overheating. You can find out about a thermostat malfunction by looking at the dashboard. The arrow of the coolant temperature sensor will go to the red forbidden sector, and in winter the car interior will warm up for an unusually long time.
Instructions
Step 1
In the case of the arrow in the forbidden sector, you are dealing with the closing of the thermostat when the coolant is forced to circulate in a small circle. The engine overheats because most of the heat remains in the engine. In the second case, you see the opposite picture. Due to the constantly closed thermostat, the engine, on the contrary, does not have enough heat and therefore you are threatened with excessive fuel consumption. The faulty thermostat will have to be removed, but only after the coolant has been drained.
Step 2
Now you should remove dirt, scale from it and fix the hole in the valve. But before that, check the thermostat. To do this, put it in a saucepan with water and start heating it on a hotplate, having previously prepared a thermometer with a scale designed for temperatures above 100 degrees C. During the test, you need to fix at what temperature the valve opens, and what is the size of the hole. You should be guided by the temperature value marked on the thermostat housing. For VAZs, it is usually 81-85 degrees, and for some foreign cars - 92-93 degrees.
Step 3
There is another type of thermostat check - by size, depending on the degree of heating. To do this, you should arm yourself with a caliper and measure the distance between points in a cooled and heated state. The difference in measurements is usually at least 7 mm.
Step 4
Wait a while for the thermostat to cool down and check if the valve is closed completely. If you find that the thermostat is faulty, then do not try to fix it, but go to your nearest parts store and buy a new one.
Step 5
If the store does not have a thermostat for your car, then know that you can do without it. Take a piece of thin plastic, cut a circle out of it and make several holes in it, then put this simple device in place of the thermostat. As a result, circulation in a large circle will be impeded and the supply of warm water to the interior heating system will resume, as well as to ensure the operating temperature of the engine.
