Runs cold.

[Balmoral]

2003 LDV Convoy with Ford 2.4 Duratorq, 39,000 miles with fsh, seemingly good healthy engine, runs great in all regards, but runs cold, about 25% on the temperature gauge.

I had a slight radiator leak so replaced it with a new one and a new thermostat too, still runs cold, replacing the temperature sender hasn't made any difference either.

What else should I be looking at?

[MC Bodge]

My 2004 Mondeo TDCI had the same fault when it bought it in '06. Driven hard it would rise a little, but drop again when cruising along.

There were 2 thermostats. One was to the oil cooler.

The Ford dealer didn't know of its existence, (literally: "they all do that, sir") but I found mention of it on a German website. They changed it and the problem was solved. They told me that one of their staff was going to change his too as a result!


Economy improved and I sold it on at 100k miles having had no further issues.

Edited by MC Bodge on Thursday 25th October 18:33

[Penelope Stopit]

Is it running cold or the temp gauge showing it as running cold?
Is the heater matrix cold?

[Balmoral]

I will investigate if there is a 2nd thermostat, I've looked up the oil cooler, doesn't look like there's a thermostat?

Dashboard gauge is all I'm going on, so it could be that? Heater works OK.

Edited by Balmoral on Thursday 25th October 18:47

[Penelope Stopit]

The problem could be an under reading gauge, try and get someone to check what temperature the coolant is reaching and go from there

[GreenV8S]

Penelope Stopit said:

The problem could be an under reading gauge, try and get someone to check what temperature the coolant is reaching and go from there

^^^ That.

These sensors usually contain a thermistor with a resistance that goes down when it gets hot. Any extra resistance in the wiring will make the gauge read low. If the car takes a long time to warm up, you probably have a faulty stat. If it shows too hot when the cooling system is heavily loaded, it's probably a water flow / radiator / air flow problem. But if it reads a little low but otherwise acts as normal, I'd be looking for a sensor/wiring fault as the most likely culprit. It's easy to check by measuring the coolant temperature at the top hose.

Edited by GreenV8S on Thursday 25th October 21:14

[stevieturbo]

So define "cold"....

Taken from an accurate reading, not the dash gauge.

[Balmoral]

Thanks for the suggestions, I will try to determine the actual coolant temperature.

What should it be, roughly?

[GreenV8S]

Balmoral said:

What should it be, roughly?

Depends what stat is fitted, but somewhere in the region 85-100C would be a typical running temperature.