BWfVA

My car has always taken forever to heat up and I always figured it was because of the thermostat was proably on the fritz. So this winter I have been noticing that if its under 50 or so my car never gets to full running temp. I know that has to be hurting milage cause it is always trying to heat up. Everything under the hood looks good but the coolant level is low. So what is your oppion, is it the thermostat or the coolant level low.

Also It has never been low before, so I honeslty couldnt tell you where it went. I havent noticed any leaks either.

unitedwestang

Ok I'm not saying this is your problem but it just happened to my brother's G5. His coolant level kept dropping and we couldn't find a leak to save our lives. Took it to the shop and found that it had gotten into the oil, and he had to get a whole new engine.
Granted this was after he hit a dog on the interstate and took out his radiator and condenser. Being not the brightest he drove until his cel came on and the display read entering cooling mode. Only then did he call me and I told him to immediately pull over (why he didn't in the first place is beyond me). Guess it was too late for the motor at that point, it had already been run too long. So he got a new radiator and condenser and everything, and as stated earlier his coolant level kept dropping--which is where this story began.
I don't know if anything may have happened your stang recently, but you might wanna drain some of your oil into a clear container and make sure you don't have oil and coolant separating.

BWfVA

I can assure you that isn't the case. I blew the rotating assembly out of a truck that blew a head gasket. All the coolant ran into the pan and ate the main bearings. Plus I just changed the oil after this had started. Its like it just evaporated out of a sealed system

BeachBlv

My car does the exact same thing for some reason. Sometimes the gauge doesnt even work when its cold outside, but the heat still does which leads me to believe its just the gauge motor thats going bad.

BWfVA

I never thought about the gauge. It could very possibly be the sensor.

If I let it set and Idle it will get up to temp and stay there. If I just get in it and go though it never gets to full temp. I mean it gets almost there but never fully there like it used to

kevinmalec

My temperature gauge motor is on the fritz. During the winter months, the gauge usually does not move. In the summertime it typically works , but off and on. Did you start noticing the issue once the cold weather started? My radiator fan kicks on, so I know everything is working fine, except for the gauge. Also, my RPM gauge acts up and is sometimes 500 RPM too low. Unfortunately, the cluster gauges on the 05 - 06 models are known to go out. I wil think about replacing out the whole cluster, once/if my speedometer or fuel gauge start to fail.

157dB

1 question.
How do you know the temp of the coolant?
What are you using as a COOLANT TEMP guage?
The OEM cluster forked COOLANT TEMP guage?
The OEM sender in the coolant passage?
Or some wonderful $200 aftermarket electrical
or mechanical capillary COOLANT TEMP guage?
Maybe you have laid you hands on a NIST certified
TEMPERATURE recording device of some sorts?
My 07 V6 has a 175 degree thermo in it and
runs at 175 degrees and has suffered no
gas mileage losses from "constantly trying to heat up".

My MSD DashHawk concures with my simple cluster temp
guage on a regular basis and the IR temp gun readings are
right on target. No more of this no cooling fan until
200+ degrees. Bypassed that silly PCM fan temp logic with my own
185 ON / 175 OFF thermo switch in the upper radiator hose.

Maybe you need to get the Fluke out and probe
the sensor and get the temp that way.
Try this:
http://iihs.net/fsm/?dir=180&viewfil...%20Cooling.pdf

2005Redfire6

Its more then likely bad stepper motors in the gauge cluster... 2005's and early 2006s had issues with them dying or working intermittenly. I replaced my whole gauge cluster after 3 of 4 gauges died on it. And like mentioned above it was worse in the colder months, I am willing to bet that is your issue. Not the motor/thermostat.