By Grady on Tuesday, April 03, 2001 - 08:35 pm: Edit

when climbing a washed out firetrail recently, I had a problem with the disco 1 running hot. Everything was working fine, there was plenty of coolant in the radiator, engine fans and front electrical fans were working, and there were only 3 of us in the car, no gear. The air temp. at the bottom was around 70 and at around the 6 mile marker it was so cold there was a foot of snow on the ground. Yet the whole time I had to run the heater full blast to keep the temp. gauge out of the red. I'm running 245's on steel AR rims so the engine is working harder than stock.

Is this a common problem when off-roading or with bigger tires? Do I need to get a bigger radiator? The car runs fine around town even in 90 degree air temps.

By Ron on Wednesday, April 04, 2001 - 03:40 am: Edit

Bad theromstat?

Also maybe a bad sendor (ie not actually overheating)?

I am betting on the first.

Ron

By kwestbro on Wednesday, April 04, 2001 - 05:00 am: Edit

Grady,

I would agree with Ron that you've possibly got a bad thermostat. I recently had one replaced during a recall service and the replacement failed a week or so later after a day of only easy off-roading. The dealer told me they'd had some experience with bad thermostats. Mine is a DSII, so may not apply to what you drive?

Kent

By Rob Davison (Pokerob) on Wednesday, April 04, 2001 - 06:44 am: Edit

were you on a steep incline for a while? even if you are a little bit low on coolant and you are on a steep hill, it can cause circulation problems , resulting in a hot temp reading. did it go back to normal once you leveled out?

...just a thought.

rd

By michel on Wednesday, April 04, 2001 - 05:19 pm: Edit

Could also be a dirty radiator, especialy if you have waded in muck. Shows up when the truck is working harder at slow speed.

Michel

By ButchS on Saturday, April 07, 2001 - 06:27 am: Edit

Ron and MIchel are right. Bad thermostat, clogged up radiator were two factors that got my heating problem? Just go buy a replacement thermostat, remove the old one and test it. If its bad replace it, Good? Keep it for future need. I had 49k miles when my thermostat started to quit. The clogged radiator was due to desert off-roading esp following behind a buddy saying "eat my dust up".