306 Diesel running cold?

[OllieWinchester]

Hello, I'm afraid you'll have to excuse my technical ignorance! My girlfriend is away so I have been using her car, which is a '97 306 D-Turbo. It seems to be running very cold, between 60-70 on the temp gauge, only creeping up if you leave it ticking over for ages with the heating off, or if you really thrash it for a bit. I appreciate its cold at the moment but I'm sure it used to (And should be) running at 85+? Also, the heater seems to bleed any available heat out of the engine very quickly. It still warms up and blows warm air, but the air only seems to get hot when the engine is under proper load, and then seems to cool again slightly when not under load. I've checked the level of coolant and it is fine, is this a thermostat problem?

Everything else seems fine, no problems starting or anything?

Any thoughts greatly appreciated...

Ollie

[Pushrod-Power]

Sounds like the thermostat is stuck open/faulty,these cars consistently run around the 80 degree mark winter or summer,and as you said only going over this idling for longer periods my 1st port of call would be to renew the stat making sure you bleed out any trapped air with the various bleed screws around this engine,although to be honest if your just changing the stat it should bleed out quite easily/quickly just leave the engine idling with the rad cap removed till the rad fans kick in

[paintman]

Stat would be a good starting point.
If you have the time to spare, start the engine from cold & let it run up to temp. Keep checking the top hose. It should get hot suddenly. If it warms up gradually chances are the stat has failed - or it hasn't got one fitted.
The latter is a common ploy by the unscrupulous to offload a car with overheating problems.