Everything has been fine up until recently (even before I did the radiator swap out...). What is happening is while driving (freeway speed or at the posted limit on surface streets...) the temp needle will begin to move slowly to the half way point and sometimes as far as three-quarters. But it always settles back down after a bit to where it's barely at it's "normal" resting spot of just under one-third from the bottom.
But it never creeps up into the red. Though this morning it did get very close to it.
I've been monitoring the behavior because it doesn't always happen. Although I have noticed that it happens more often in the morning. These last couple of weeks, we've been having morning fog at my house and pretty much all the way into work (for those that know the San Diego County area, I work up in Carlsbad so we get the Marine layer...). The average temp in the morning has been 61F at my house about the same when I arrive at work (which is about a 12 mile drive...). The day time temps along the cost has been in the mid-70s but inland where I live has been in the mid-80s to the high-90s.
There has been a few times these past couple of weeks where I have been in afternoon traffic and the outside temp is in the high-80s. I have watched the temp needle and it sits at it's normal spot as indicated earlier in this message. Even with the AC on. I think I saw it go up once to be a full one-third from the bottom for about 10 seconds before it slipped back down.
Doesn't happen in the evenings either. This past Monday evening I had to drive down to La Jolla (about a 35 mile one way trip from my house...) and the outside temp was in the mid-70s. That night when I was driving home, it was in the low-70s, high-60s.
It only seems to happen when it's in the low-60s. And the cooling fan does kick on.
When I replaced the thermostat, we were basically in spring time here in San Diego County and so the morning temp was in the high-60s.
Anyway, I'm wondering if I have a very slow reacting thermostat (something I sort of want to remedy before the Fall season where it does get down to around 30 and 40F at my house...) or it's just plain sticking on me. I talked with my Dad last night about it and he thinks that perhaps it's not the right temp thermostat (because I didn't use one from the dealer...).
Even then, I would think that a slow reacting thermostat would still show the symptoms I've described regardless of the outside temp but my Dad made an argument (a theory really...) that perhaps due to the location of the thermostat, there could be a small pocket of cold air and it's causing the thermostat to open slower than normal. While I'm not going to rule that possibility out, I have seen the condition happen while on surface streets where there should be enough heat trapped inside the engine compartment.
Although, I do have the Carbon Fiber hood and I did not put any sort of insulation under it like that found on the stock hood (although I did order the stock Emission decal from the dealer...). I still have the stock hood with the insulation in tact. Should I try to re-attach it and see if it makes a difference? Or should I just go ahead and swap out the thermostat?
Anyone dealt with this before?
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