All,
Ok, with my fuel economy having gone steadily downward (last tank, 80% highway driving, was 17.8MPG), I figure I should probably at least start asking a few more questions.
But, uh, yeah, due to scheduling conflicts and a nasty case of the plague, I've still never gotten together with John to take care of the vacuum hoses.
That said, I finally changed the fuel filter.
However, I don't know if that made a difference in isolation, because now the temperature outside has gone up rather impressively.
Suddenly, though, I notice that where the fuel gauge is relative to how far I've driven has improved. Dramatically.
So, of course, a few possible things immediately occur to me. These two constitute me jumping the gun, because I won't know how much of an increase I got in fuel economy until the next tankful of gas. But I wonder....
1) Could the fuel filter have caused that much of a difference? The car was still running smoothly and with what felt like full power, after all.
2) Could it be a marginal thermostat?
3) Could it be some sort of temperature sensor that is sending bogus readings only when it's cold, and functions normally when the weather's better?
Ok, so I figured the thermostat is at least 3 years old, and of unknown number of miles on it. Couldn't hurt to change it out and flush the coolant while I'm at it.
Then I went looking. Poked around at Rockauto just to see...
Hmm . . some brands say 195 is the OE recommended temperature. Another from a company called Motorad says it's 192 degrees - and has a regular and a high flow version.
And finally, the Motorcraft one shows 190 as the temperature.
So, my questions:
1) Is there a brand that's more reliable/recommended?
2) What is the real temperature that the thermostat SHOULD be? I don't know if 2 to 5 degrees really makes a difference, but I'd like to keep the engine and computer, etc., as happy as possible.
Thanks
Ok, with my fuel economy having gone steadily downward (last tank, 80% highway driving, was 17.8MPG), I figure I should probably at least start asking a few more questions.
But, uh, yeah, due to scheduling conflicts and a nasty case of the plague, I've still never gotten together with John to take care of the vacuum hoses.
That said, I finally changed the fuel filter.
However, I don't know if that made a difference in isolation, because now the temperature outside has gone up rather impressively.
Suddenly, though, I notice that where the fuel gauge is relative to how far I've driven has improved. Dramatically.
So, of course, a few possible things immediately occur to me. These two constitute me jumping the gun, because I won't know how much of an increase I got in fuel economy until the next tankful of gas. But I wonder....
1) Could the fuel filter have caused that much of a difference? The car was still running smoothly and with what felt like full power, after all.
2) Could it be a marginal thermostat?
3) Could it be some sort of temperature sensor that is sending bogus readings only when it's cold, and functions normally when the weather's better?
Ok, so I figured the thermostat is at least 3 years old, and of unknown number of miles on it. Couldn't hurt to change it out and flush the coolant while I'm at it.
Then I went looking. Poked around at Rockauto just to see...
Hmm . . some brands say 195 is the OE recommended temperature. Another from a company called Motorad says it's 192 degrees - and has a regular and a high flow version.
And finally, the Motorcraft one shows 190 as the temperature.
So, my questions:
1) Is there a brand that's more reliable/recommended?
2) What is the real temperature that the thermostat SHOULD be? I don't know if 2 to 5 degrees really makes a difference, but I'd like to keep the engine and computer, etc., as happy as possible.
Thanks
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