Another water temp related question

I don�t remember my temps getting to this point last summer, but I�m looking for opinions how to detect a water pump not functioning properly. I recently had an LN low temp thermostat installed be because I thought I saw my temps varying more than usual. I cannot detect any leaks coming from the water pump and don�t hear any noises. The water pump was last changed at 68,000 miles, long before I purchased the car. I am currently at 116k. Does anyone have any input or should I just shut up and drive? 99 C2.

Totally normal for a 99. May be worthwhile to clean out your radiators if it has been a while though. Believe Mike Murphy answered your question nicely in your last temp thread. https://rennlist.com/forums/996-foru...hermostat.html

I mean it is 100F outside. I too have a low temp t-stat, and during heavy city stop & go traffic, at 90F temp, I would see my temp creep up to that level too. However when interstate cruising in 5th gear at 75 miles, it�s dead center at 180F.

That looks normal to me and inline with my 2000 with LN low temp thermostat and recently cleaned rads

What is the benefit of a low temp thermostat ?

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True. He was very informative and I appreciate all the feedback. It does come down on the freeway, but it�s still above 180.

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To the purchaser or LN?

23 year old car. First of all, needs a new water pump. Also need to go over every inch of your cooling system and most likely need to start refreshing parts. Could be everything, could be just a couple of parts. You don't know until you go thru it. Or it could be nothing because everything is in good shape.

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I believe it opens a little sooner so is wider open than stock at normal running temps, this allows more flow so there are less chances of hot spots in the engine, esp the cylinder head. Less chance of cracking

Low temperature thermostat does NOT make the car run cooler. Contrary to given beliefs about it. Just opens sooner as car is warming up. So......simple question to OP. Are the radiator fans working on both sides? Are they running on high?

I also noticed what seemed like higher temps after a water pump and LN thermostat install last year. It sits just about where yours is (maybe 1mm to the left) but won't go over. Previously it always sat between the 8 and the 0. However, I've determined that one of my radiator fans is not working in the high-speed mode, so I attributed it to that. You may want to make sure both of your fans are working as intended.

I majorly refreshed my cooling system over the winter, condensers / csf radiators / radiator fans / water pump / thermostat, it was 97 by me over the weekend and I get similar temps. My old crapped up system with broken high speed fans would get to the middle mark between 180/250. If you're running your AC heavily (and its 100 degrees, I hope you are) that will drive up the temps as well, if I turn off the AC and keep the high speed fans on the car will pretty quickly cool down 5-10 degrees.

The temp indicator has never been higher than a needle-width above 180 even in sunny SW Florida.. Stock thermostat in my 2004 C2 Cab. /X3

Is this a 996.1 thing? I road tripped to Texas my 996.2 a month ago; temps were in the high 90's, I sat in traffic, and I never saw my temp gauge go that far up.

996.2 had some tweaks to improve cooling by about 20%, see page 61 of the attached article at https://rennlist.com/forums/996-foru...l#post15174035 The money quote to me is "it was more difficult to get the air out of the radiators than into them", seems like routing the air out to the wheel well should help with that https://rennlist.com/forums/996-foru...to-reduce.html

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I'd say yes. I've seen numerous photos of .1 cars and their temp gauge always showed a bit higher. My .2 always sits right between the 8 and 0. If the radiators have not been cleaned I'd definitely do that. When I say cleaned I mean really cleaned. Not just vacuumed. Pull the bumper. Separate the AC condenser from the radiator and spray it with some water at pressure. Bunch of tiny bugs and other debris get stuck in the fins and need to be cleaned out completely. You may be surprised what and how much comes out of a radiator that looks ok to an eye.

The coolant temperature gauge on earlier cars reports changes in temperature much quicker than later models. In fact, we've see coolant temps get over 220F before the gauge actually starts to move from the normal spot between 8 and 0. When the over temp light flashes, we call that the rebuild engine light since the engine is fried at that point. For those who do not understand how a thermostat works, it will slowly open up until it is fully open. When coolant temperature drops, it starts closing again. With the 160F low temperature thermostat, it's fully open between 180 and 185F. The stock one doesn't start to open until 185F and isn't open fully until 210-215F, so in normal driving and with average ambient air temps, the stock one will cycle between open and closed, whereas the low temp will stay open all the time, providing more stable coolant temps. However at some point, when you get the coolant sufficiently hot, say over 210F, both a low temperature and standard temp one will both be open all the time.