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How long does the Thermostat last?

9K views 19 replies 11 participants last post by  LiEkjAi 
#1 ·
Whould ant one happen to know how many miles a thermostat lasts? Mine has been in my car for about four years.
 
#2 ·
Don't think miles has alot to do with it, it's thermocycles, which is impossible to know. The original thermostat in my Nissan was 12 years old when I replaced it and I only did that when I was troubleshooting for an old radiator, it was probably still good. If it's still functioning, leave it alone.
 
#6 ·
Why I ask is last weekend I was driving from D.C. and my temp rose pasted half way and I had to turn on my heater to get it to go back down.
 
#8 ·
Since this ios a thermo topic. I wanted to side bust in with a question. If the thermo fails, is it possible for my heater to fail? I replaced my radiator abaout three monthes ago and i always get a "cooler" than normal reading
 
#9 ·
The heater would not fail...it would recieve coolant by the smaller hose. I think your coolant level could be low if the heater core is blowing cool air of it's block. Did you turn the heater on full heat when you changed the coolant?
 
#11 ·
During cold temps (now through winter, early spring) my temperature gauge never really goes much futher past that solid white \ (slash) mark. If I let the car sit & idle, it will eventually go up to normal (just left of center) but once i start to drive again it'll go back down. To me it sounds like it's stuck open but I'm not sure...any input would be helpful, sorry for the thread jack :)
 
#12 ·
JonDubya on Nov/06/06 said:
During cold temps (now through winter, early spring) my temperature gauge never really goes much futher past that solid white \ (slash) mark. If I let the car sit & idle, it will eventually go up to normal (just left of center) but once i start to drive again it'll go back down. To me it sounds like it's stuck open but I'm not sure...any input would be helpful, sorry for the thread jack :)
malfunctioning thermostat. My car did the same thing a while back. I ended up replacing the thermostat, it's normal now.
Thermostats have random life spans, similar to a lot of electronic devices or radioactive decay, which means it could fail anytime or last forever. It's like in any day of its life the probability of its failure is 0.001, independent on its past. In general, this possibilty is small, so thermostats last long time.
(from Physics class)
 
#14 ·
JonDubya on Nov/06/06 said:
Thx...and uh, radioactive decay, or half lives, are fixed values...varying only between different material.
What do you mean it's a fixed value? radioactive decay is a process. I was comparing life of a thermostat to that of a atomic nuclei in the process which is impossible to predict because it's random, independent on its past.

A 10 year old thermostat is as good as a brand new one.
A brand new thermostat can stop working properly the next day.
 
#15 ·
Ok so a wierd thing happen today...You know how the the thermostat side of the hose should be warmer than the return side...well my coolant hoses are (tempature wise) backwards...Anyone else seem to notice this on their engines?
 
#17 ·
umm its my first post so be gentle but isnt radioactive decay measurable. ever heard of carbon 14 dating? radioactive materials have "predictable" half-lifes. i could be wrong......
 
#18 ·
the_unknown on Nov/09/06 said:
umm its my first post so be gentle but isnt radioactive decay measurable. ever heard of carbon 14 dating? radioactive materials have "predictable" half-lifes. i could be wrong......
The mean(average) of it can be measurable by the half-life formula (Ao*exp(-t/T)), after some period of time half of the isotopes decay. However, you cannot predict life of one atom.
Many electric devices also have this property of radioactive atoms (e.g. transitors..)
 
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