[mustangracer2g]

so today i went to a local comm college to pick up a class schedule park, when i get back to my car.. it wont start, i think since i hadnt driven it in so long it was kinda low on battery charge or my alternator is goin.. cuz once i had a jump it started again.. anyhow.. so i notice that the hose goin from my radiator to the thermostat housing is super swollen! like seriously.. i never noticed it b4.. or if it should even be like that, when i touched it to squeeze it it was super hot, which was expected, but it was hard as hell, and the car was off for about 5 mins or so. So i squeeze and notice that its not makin that sound.. like a small clink i think its from the thermostat? like when u sqeeze it and let it go. i try crankin engine over (this was b4 gettin it jumped) and then i squeezed the hose again and it made the noise... so i get home and i let it sit. the hose wasnt swollen anymore after a couple hours. So i go to turn it on, it barely turns on.. and so i let it idle to see when the radiator gets hot, how fast the hose swells and also when the fans turn on.. it took about 15 mins for the fans to come on.. and the hose took all of about 5 mins to swell again.. but i could hear the little klink sound when i squeezed the hose. i did notice that there was enough pressure in the radiator that there was a very little bit of coolant kind of leaking from the lid... when i opened it b4 idling.. the coolant was filled to the max! and i dont think i even filled it that high. So i do think something is clogged and makin the hose swell up too much and putting a strain on the radiator.. i really dont want the car to overheat.

what i want to know is.. is the hose supposed to be that swollen? how do i know if its the thermostat (any way to test it and is it easy to remove?), what and where else could be clogged in the cooling system? how do i check for clogs and unclog it? thanks in advance guys any help would be greatly appreciated.

[uedlose]

It could be just a bad hose. But if you cant remember the last time you put a T-Stat in it or if its been a few years then putting one would not hurt. As far as some thing being stopped up and make the hose swell I have my doubt I think you just got a bad hose

[mustangracer2g]

ive had the car for about 4 years now.. and i think that yeah... i should change the tstat, im gonna try that tomorrow, and probably flush my cooling system. im gonna take out my current one and test it in a boiling pot first tho, im hoping its just that.

I think the problem might have been the fact that i let the car sit for a while.. and a while back like a couple months ago, i had a leak around the tstat housing and i just dumped some heavy duty bars leaks stop leak stuff in there, it made the coolant all mud lookin.. and im thinkin it might have clogged something since i let it sit, or messed up the tstat. It did stop that leak tho hahaha oh wells, live and learn...

thanks for the info.. good thing tstats are cheap, oh yeah i bypassed my heater core... should i just get the stock 195 degree one? or see if they have a 180? will that make my fans turn on more often? cuz i noticed my battery drops charge everytime they do....

[mustangracer2g]

so i flushed the system and i ran the engine without the tstat and the hose swelled up just as much, so i guess its normal.. i bought a 180 degree tstat, so im installing that after i flush the system with water, then once its in again im gonna flush it with prestone radiator flush, so im hoping that clears everything up... and the car runs better, thanks

[thermodix]

Originally Posted by mustangracer2g so today i went to a local comm college to pick up a class schedule park, when i get back to my car.. it wont start, i think since i hadnt driven it in so long it was kinda low on battery charge or my alternator is goin.. cuz once i had a jump it started again.. anyhow.. so i notice that the hose goin from my radiator to the thermostat housing is super swollen! like seriously.. i never noticed it b4.. or if it should even be like that, when i touched it to squeeze it it was super hot, which was expected, but it was hard as hell, and the car was off for about 5 mins or so. So i squeeze and notice that its not makin that sound.. like a small clink i think its from the thermostat? like when u sqeeze it and let it go. i try crankin engine over (this was b4 gettin it jumped) and then i squeezed the hose again and it made the noise... so i get home and i let it sit. the hose wasnt swollen anymore after a couple hours. So i go to turn it on, it barely turns on.. and so i let it idle to see when the radiator gets hot, how fast the hose swells and also when the fans turn on.. it took about 15 mins for the fans to come on.. and the hose took all of about 5 mins to swell again.. but i could hear the little klink sound when i squeezed the hose. i did notice that there was enough pressure in the radiator that there was a very little bit of coolant kind of leaking from the lid... when i opened it b4 idling.. the coolant was filled to the max! and i dont think i even filled it that high. So i do think something is clogged and makin the hose swell up too much and putting a strain on the radiator.. i really dont want the car to overheat. what i want to know is.. is the hose supposed to be that swollen? how do i know if its the thermostat (any way to test it and is it easy to remove?), what and where else could be clogged in the cooling system? how do i check for clogs and unclog it? thanks in advance guys any help would be greatly appreciated.

I think you may try to go to your local motor shop and they would check it for you if you don't really know how is it man... rather than you do it by your self and trying to see if what is that sound came from...


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Thermostat