My Thermostat Replacement

[jjcool00]

The only issue I've ever had with my LS since I bought it in February was very similar to yours. I was driving one day, parked in my drive way left the car on, came outside and bam smoke everywhere. I was shocked, turned the car off immediately. Waited an hour and drove it to the mechanic 5 mins away. They came to the conclusion of thermostat, changed it and the housing (since I think the auto parts store by me sells everything in one piece). Few days later, same issue, smoke and high temperature. Took it to the mechanic, he couldn't find anything. He kept it for 2-3 days just to be sure. Weekend comes up and I start driving it and the temp is on the rise again. I take it home and start looking around. I saw no coolant leak, however when I got under the car, near the driverside tire there was some very thin film. Turned out to be a small amount of antifreeze. After looking over the situation for a while I figured out it was indeed the degas bottle. The high temperature coolant return from the thermostat must've caused it to crack. I changed it and the lower hose (which was a bitch) and been running fine since.

 

[Elemino]

glad you are not stuck and have a ride. Yeah, there's no o-ring on the gen 2 t-stat (unless you removed it). I still can't really tell if its open or closed there.

I have a gasket that looks like a wide black rubber band. I bought a new one when I ordered the thermostat, just in case. The thermostat is stuck closed.

Is this the part that broke?

My initial leak was here:

If you see my last picture of the thermostat, you'll notice the right side tab is missing that holds the thermostat in place. I have no leaks... yet.

 

[TooManyToys]

With the jaw break like you could install the housing without the T/S and drive it like that if you absolutely had to until you got a replacement. Software controlled motors don't like running cool though.

 

[Elemino]

New thermostat in new housing.

This thing WAS NOT easy to put together! I had to use a C-Clamp (and safety glasses). I was so scared it was going to pop out and hit me in the face the entire time I worked on it! Finally got it in. Both are made a little different from the originals. I hope the changes were for the better.

I went through the bleed proceedure, and unlike before the car did not try to overheat. The fan moves tons more heat, but does not spin up to max like before. I think I have it fixed. New DCCV and new thermostat...

 

[Elemino]

The only issue I've ever had with my LS since I bought it in February was very similar to yours. I was driving one day, parked in my drive way left the car on, came outside and bam smoke everywhere. I was shocked, turned the car off immediately. Waited an hour and drove it to the mechanic 5 mins away. They came to the conclusion of thermostat, changed it and the housing (since I think the auto parts store by me sells everything in one piece). Few days later, same issue, smoke and high temperature. Took it to the mechanic, he couldn't find anything. He kept it for 2-3 days just to be sure. Weekend comes up and I start driving it and the temp is on the rise again. I take it home and start looking around. I saw no coolant leak, however when I got under the car, near the driverside tire there was some very thin film. Turned out to be a small amount of antifreeze. After looking over the situation for a while I figured out it was indeed the degas bottle. The high temperature coolant return from the thermostat must've caused it to crack. I changed it and the lower hose (which was a bitch) and been running fine since.

I'll check for it, but considering my level has beenat Max, I doubt anything was leaking... even slowly.

I verified the thermostat was in deed seized. So either way, it needed to be replaced.

 

[jjcool00]

Yeah it's just a FYI just incase, the fluid would almost be near the wheel well. My mechanic who is a certified lincoln specialist apparently, but mostly works on town cars and such since I live near the airport didn't have much LS experience and when he saw it he assumed I ran over some water, it was VERY minimal. But once I removed the bottle itself it was apparent it was in bad shape. You could see it warped and expanded, small small cracks at the bottom from the intense heat. From browsing on here, seems to be a common problem. I remember when i removed it thinking "WTF ive never seen one of these go bad." Thought it was just my bad luck, guess I wasn't alone! Been reading up on your brake thread, thinking about it but gotta save since I just did the remote start. I may even just do the SCT tuning... I have no idea so many aspirations and so little time/money haha

 

[Elemino]

Also did this just before working on the thermostat / dccv problem. It's been talked about so much, there was no need to add a new thread.

This arrived today. It should be on by next weekend... can't wait!

 

[Elemino]

Yeah it's just a FYI just incase, the fluid would almost be near the wheel well. My mechanic who is a certified lincoln specialist apparently, but mostly works on town cars and such since I live near the airport didn't have much LS experience and when he saw it he assumed I ran over some water, it was VERY minimal. But once I removed the bottle itself it was apparent it was in bad shape. You could see it warped and expanded, small small cracks at the bottom from the intense heat. From browsing on here, seems to be a common problem. I remember when i removed it thinking "WTF ive never seen one of these go bad." Thought it was just my bad luck, guess I wasn't alone! Been reading up on your brake thread, thinking about it but gotta save since I just did the remote start. I may even just do the SCT tuning... I have no idea so many aspirations and so little time/money haha

I will do it. But since my bottle is still fine, I'm in no hurry. My car barely passed inspection yesterday because of the tires, so guess whats next up on my list?

 

[jjcool00]

What you gonna go with tire wise? I went with Goodyear F1 all season... love em.

 

[Elemino]

I'm thinking the Z rated Michelin stock size Tire. I made a new thread about it.

 

[alonzo232]

Lincoln ls and i have a brand that is hot sometimes but after 5 is cool and miinutos back to normal

 

[Elemino]

I forgot to mention one thing! The new thermostat was made different from the one I pulled out. It looks like Ford redesigned it. The new thermostat has no bypass built into it, where as the old one did. The new housing had a bypass built in where as the old one didn't. So it looks like the old housing would not have worked with the new thermostat anyway. I guess its good I had to replace both.