Hello!

Greg, before you yell at me again I successfully completed half of the trip; I'm currently in the L.A. area (actually at my grandmother's at the moment; I'm going back to my dad's on Tuesday and coming home on the 4th.

So far, things have been pretty good overall. I've got a weird creaking in my front end that I'm going to start another post about; other than that, I believe the car's happy. I was able to go over the Grapevine twice without the car overheating.

I do have a couple of questions, though.

First, I'm noticing that the car's running warmer than it had in the past. Before the old thermostat went bad, the gauge would get to just a hair above 80°C and stay there, except on warm days where it would get up into the 90° range. With the new thermostat, it's getting up to a little bit above 90° before the lower radiator hose starts getting hot. In addition, the gauge seems to be moving quite a bit more; mainly slowly fluctuating between 85° and 95°. My first thought is that the thermostat's opening up later than expected ("80°" is cast on a flange on the new thermostat), but without pulling it and checking it (that'll wait 'till I get home), I can't be sure. Also, I remember hearing that the thermostat's supposed to start opening at a temperature and should be completely open by a different temperature, so mayube this is normal? BTW, if it makes a difference, I'm running a roughly 50/50 mixture of distilled water and Zerex G-05, with one bottle of Water Wetter.

Also, how long should it take for the cooling system to be completely purged of trapped air? I filled the system through the upper radiator hose and the expansion tank (which should have filled the radiator), and I'm assuming that there will be air trapped in the system that needs to work its way to the expansion tank. It's been about 300 miles since the last flush, and in that time I've checked the expansion tank level (I really wish that there was a cap on the radiator itself) 5 or 6 times and have had to add coolant each time (maybe 3 cups worth; that's just an EWAG).

Sorry to bug everyone again on this again I know people are getting sick of me yappin' about the cooling system on my car, but I'm hoping that this'll be over pretty quick (unless I have an undetected leak, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel).

Any comments would be appreciated...thanks in advance!

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2001 VW Jetta TDI, 5 speed, daily driver
1991 Ford F-350, work in progress
1984 Ford F-250 4x4, 6.9l turbo diesel, 5 speed manual
Previous oilburners: 1980 IH Scout, 1984 E-350, 1985 M-B 300D, 1979 M-B 300SD, 1983 M-B 300D
Spark-free since 1999