HI guyz Last weekend I replaced my Thermostate from autozone. They said its same spec as factory Thermostat was. Ever since then my car temperature guage needle never goes to middle as it used to before. It stays close to 1/3.

Also It takes much longer for my car to heat up now. Does this mean they gave me wrong thermostat ? Or is it normal for new thermostats.

 

Not normal for new thermostats. It sounds like they may have given you a 160 degree thermostat or it could be that the new one is stuck open. How cold has it been where you are? I had one stick open once in the winter. Above zero it took a long time for the car to warm up. When the tempature dropped to -20 it never did. Even after 1/2 hour the car didn't warm up enough to defrost the windows. I had to scrap the inside of the windows in order to see down the road.

 

I'd hook it up to an actual water gauge and you will know right away what's wrong. The stock gauge is a dummy gauge with an on/off setting; no variable. It's good to have an aftermarket water temp gauge anyways and you can pick up a mechanical part-sweep for like 30 bucks.

 

I am at Fort Riley, Its been snowing and raining a lot .

 

A pot of water on the stove with a good thermometer. Drop in thermo. and see what temp. it opens.- I run a HyperTech 160 Powerstat & water wetter w/ no issues. Sounds like U got a "colder" one than stock.

 

I think stock is 190 but If I am using 160 is it bad for my engine ? I told these guyz at autozone to give me factory replacement. Should have gone to dealer and buy motorcraft. But then Dealer is always most expensive.

 

160 shouldn't hurt your motor. Most guys use them on blown cars to keep operating temps down a bit

 

As long as it dont anything bad to the engine. My work is 10 miles from home and I drive twice a day. Morning and then lunch back and forth. And during that time by engine always remains cold ( gauge at C or lil below). I have to leave the car idle for about 20 min to get it hot on cold mornings.