We've all heard of thermostats failing by sticking, usually closed,
though sometimes open, but this was a new one to me. The thermostat in
my Cherokee failed by deciding to regulate at a different temperature.
I'm just guessing because of the lack of gauge calibration, but it
seemed to be opening around 160F or so. I thought at first that the
sender had gone off, but when the usually anemic heater was even less
effective during the recent spell of single digit temperatures, I got
suspicious.
So I pulled it out this weekend and boiled it, along with it's
replacement. The old one, marked 195, was well open by the time the new
one, marked 190, started to move. And with the new one in place, the
temp gauge is reading back up in the normal range. The heater seems a
bit better, too.
So keep this in mind when trying to troubleshoot bizzare cooling
problems. There is yet another possible failure mode to consider.
Stu
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