95mustgt5.0

ive been having to put in more cooleant everyweek so i took my car to the shop to get the coolant system chacked and they said there werent any leeks and that the thermostat has robably been sticking since its an older car with low miles (1995 72,000) and it has sat alot. sure enough every few days i will notice the thermostat sticking on my car so i figure i need to replace it so i dont need to keep filling coolant every week. my question is, how and how hard is it to replace the thermostat urself?

Derf00

If you have to put fluid in, you're losing it somewhere. Sticky thermostat does not = loss in fluid. Sticky Thermostat = overheating.
Did they actually pressure check your cooling system before coming up with that answer? Thermosats are easy but you may want to buy an extra housing in case you crack the first one (very common).

luckythirteen13

how do you know the stat is sticking? is the car over heating?
a sticking thermastat wouldnt cause you to consume coolant. if you have no leaks you must be burning it. do you ever have white smoke in the exhaust?
72k miles isnt that much. i have 100k miles and thats low IMO. if you figure 10k miles a year you should have 100k by now. i think dealers assume for 12k a year. either way you have low miles
if you want to put in a 180 stat go for it. the car will run cooler and its a very easy install. it wont stop you from loosing coolant.
do a compression test. or you can take the radiator cap off and start the engine. if you see bubbles you have a bad head gasket

95mustgt5.0

oh ok. im not very knowledgeable about cooling systems so i was just going but what the guy said to me. i suppose ill have to take it somewhere again and get it pressure checked. or is there any was i can check myself. i have already looked for leaks when its running but i never see any.

95mustgt5.0

so what do i have to do if it were burning the coolant. and no i never see white smoke out of the tailpipe. and how hard or how much would it be to get hte head gasket replaced if that were the problem?

torch red

its a piece of cake to change, i would put a cooler thermostate in, like a 180--good luck

95mustgt5.0

also the car is not overheating

Derf00

You can check it yourself or pay a shop to do it. Doing it yourself runs about double what a shop will charge you for it since you will need to buy a pressure tester. Like most specialty tools you have to buy a kit that will work on more cars than just your mustang. They tend to run $50-80 bucks for a kit.

Check your oil dipstick to see if it's got any milky colored oil. If it does, you found you leak. I had a leaky water pump that I didn't spot until the dealer had it up in the air for a clutch. It leaked enough to make me add coolant every so often but not enough to where it hit the ground. (would evaporate before it got too far from the spot.

blkgt50

are you adding coolent or water? Take your radiator cap to auto zone and have them do a pressure check on your cap. or you can rent the pressure tester from them go home and pressure test yourcap and your car at home, then return to them and not spend a dime. Of course they are going to charge you to take the tool home and when you return it they will refund your money, so inturn you don't spend any money. I had to replace my cap because it wasn't holding the 13 pounds of pressure that it should have it would get to 13 but not stay there it would drop to nothing just as fast as pump it.

blkgt50

They also rent the compression tester there too, if you need it.