I have a 98 2.8 and it just willnot warm up. Yesterday i drove from the north hills of pittsburgh (home) to murrysville (work)THE car never warmed up. I mean it would blow luke warm air but thats it. The oil temp read normal but the coolant temp would float between c and the 1st line. When i got to work i popped the hood and the upper rad hose was warm but the lower was cold. My coolant is full too. I personally think its the t stat but any info would be greatly appreciated. I dont look forward to changing the t stat seeing as i dont have garage(and its FNF COLD!) nor the money to pay some one to do right now. Christmas is around the corner and with kids .... well you know. Total travel time between home and work is about 30 mi. one way.

 

Sounds like a classic t-stat fail to me. You may find some local guys who can help you out (Airguard350 on here lives near you), but if not it's really not a hard job, just time-consuming.

 

Thanks devil. I really appreciate the response. Like I said, the thermostat is what I was thinking but I wanted to ask on here because there are gutys on here that know more than me. Thanks again.

 

Be sure to take the new one to the kitchen stove and get some water boiling. Drop it in for a few seconds to be sure it opens and fish it out with a fork. Wouldn't want to go through all that and have a bad one, believe me I ended up getting two in a row bad. If it doesn't open take it back and tell them you tested it before installing it and it was bad, they'd much rather replace a maximum ten dollar t-stat than have you in there yelling your head gasket is blown because of their part (I worked at Autozone as a manager and gladly swapped them)

 

im having the EXACT same problem..guess ill be ripping the front end apart this weekend. i drove to richmond last night for a concert, which is 90 miles each way. and when i got home i was like a walking ice cube. absolutely no warm air blowing. thanks for the thread, it helped me in my decision as well

 

if it's a 1.8t aeb (and maybe the other two too).. u don't have to rip the front.

My friend got to it from underneath. Just plan on having a bucket close by cause coolant will be dripping like there's no tmr.. loll