Yup, it finally happened after 7.5 years and 110k miles. About two weeks ago my wife informed me that the CEL light came on. I disconnected the battery and the cel went away for over a week. Few days ago the cel came back and I knew that it must be coming on for a reason.
As my luck would have it, CT has a 50% off sale for their OBD2 scanner, so I got it for a $100 which is not bad considering it has few extra features such as data logging and ABS codes.
Anyway, the code is P1026 and it's insufficient coolant temp. which means I need a new thermostat. The car warms up as usual and the temp. needle always reaches the usual centre position. So there are no other indication of the thermostat being stuck open.
This brings me to another point. And it is about some members mantra of changing thermostats when certain mileage is reached. Well, in any modern car it is totally not needed because the car will detect longer warm up times far sooner that the driver looking at the dummy gauges. This pretty much removes all guess work and unneeded part changes. Neat if you ask me.
As my luck would have it, CT has a 50% off sale for their OBD2 scanner, so I got it for a $100 which is not bad considering it has few extra features such as data logging and ABS codes.
Anyway, the code is P1026 and it's insufficient coolant temp. which means I need a new thermostat. The car warms up as usual and the temp. needle always reaches the usual centre position. So there are no other indication of the thermostat being stuck open.
This brings me to another point. And it is about some members mantra of changing thermostats when certain mileage is reached. Well, in any modern car it is totally not needed because the car will detect longer warm up times far sooner that the driver looking at the dummy gauges. This pretty much removes all guess work and unneeded part changes. Neat if you ask me.
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