Okay all, I will try to be as detailed as possible.
I am a new 80 series owner; I took delivery of Mountain Girl , a 1995 80 series, in November with 251,000 miles on her. PO had used as a daily driver. Since then I have put MAYBE 100 miles on it. The first thing I noticed when I drove it home was that there was no heat coming from the front vents; heat is hot and fine from the rear vents. I asked the PO about this and he told me that had been an issue and thought it might be due for a coolant change. I've done a lot of looking on Mud and found several people with this issue and it usually seems to be either a clogged heater core or air in the cooling system.
However, a couple of weeks ago while I was driving it on a short trip around town (stop and go traffic, short stint on the highway, ambient temperature sub-30's). The first thing I noticed was that within about 2 minutes the temp needle had risen to it's normal position; I found that strange as it was fairly cold outside. A few miles down the road I looked at the gauge cluster and noticed the temp needle acting erratically. It would move up within a hair of the red zone, then suddenly drop to it's normal just below half, then sometimes drop even below that. I immediately turned around to head home which was only about 5 miles away. It continued this behavior all the way back. There were no other symptoms.
Shortly after that I ordered an Ultra Gauge and was able to install it last night. Again, with ambient temps in the mid-40's, within 1 1/2 to 2 minutes the temperature needle had risen to normal. I drove within my neighborhood for approximately 10 minutes with speeds never exceeding 30 mph. Within that time the temperature reading on the UG had risen all the way up to 226.4 F at which point I pulled into the driveway and turned the car off. I did notice during the drive the temperature stalled once at around 190 F and I let it sit and idle for a minute. It dropped by a few degrees into the 180s F but then rose again once I started driving, and continued to rise. It idled and ran smoothly, there was no shaking or excessive smoke. There is a strange "rushing liquid" sound periodically behind the dash on the passenger side.
I'm wondering if these issues (no front heat, rising coolant temps) are related. I have a kit from Blackstone at home and hope to send off an oil sample to them this weekend, but I was interested in getting thoughts from Mud in the meantime as there are some very knowledgeable people perusing these threads.
Thanks in advance!
I am a new 80 series owner; I took delivery of Mountain Girl , a 1995 80 series, in November with 251,000 miles on her. PO had used as a daily driver. Since then I have put MAYBE 100 miles on it. The first thing I noticed when I drove it home was that there was no heat coming from the front vents; heat is hot and fine from the rear vents. I asked the PO about this and he told me that had been an issue and thought it might be due for a coolant change. I've done a lot of looking on Mud and found several people with this issue and it usually seems to be either a clogged heater core or air in the cooling system.
However, a couple of weeks ago while I was driving it on a short trip around town (stop and go traffic, short stint on the highway, ambient temperature sub-30's). The first thing I noticed was that within about 2 minutes the temp needle had risen to it's normal position; I found that strange as it was fairly cold outside. A few miles down the road I looked at the gauge cluster and noticed the temp needle acting erratically. It would move up within a hair of the red zone, then suddenly drop to it's normal just below half, then sometimes drop even below that. I immediately turned around to head home which was only about 5 miles away. It continued this behavior all the way back. There were no other symptoms.
Shortly after that I ordered an Ultra Gauge and was able to install it last night. Again, with ambient temps in the mid-40's, within 1 1/2 to 2 minutes the temperature needle had risen to normal. I drove within my neighborhood for approximately 10 minutes with speeds never exceeding 30 mph. Within that time the temperature reading on the UG had risen all the way up to 226.4 F at which point I pulled into the driveway and turned the car off. I did notice during the drive the temperature stalled once at around 190 F and I let it sit and idle for a minute. It dropped by a few degrees into the 180s F but then rose again once I started driving, and continued to rise. It idled and ran smoothly, there was no shaking or excessive smoke. There is a strange "rushing liquid" sound periodically behind the dash on the passenger side.
I'm wondering if these issues (no front heat, rising coolant temps) are related. I have a kit from Blackstone at home and hope to send off an oil sample to them this weekend, but I was interested in getting thoughts from Mud in the meantime as there are some very knowledgeable people perusing these threads.
Thanks in advance!
