Drop in temp, and slowness to "warm"

[barryogen]

Last week my car(01 Altezza) stopped showing any temp on the gauge except after giving it a few herbs(long hill climb in a lower gear than usual), and idle went to ~1800RPM(from the typical ~900odd).

I suspected thermostat, and it was replaced with a genuine Toyota one yesterday.
Idle seems to have gone to where it should, but temp gauge is sitting lower than usual, and it is taking a lot longer to get to warm than it used to, almost to work 7kms away instead of being to warm after ~3kms.

Any ideas?
Should I be concerned?

[sergei]

was the thermostat fitted with the appropriate seal, also was the thermostat the right item to start with? Was the cooling system bled properly?

[barryogen]

My usual workshop did it, they've done a good job on everything I've thrown at them for the past 5 ish years, so I assume it was done right,

what would I need to ask them, I'm only just starting to be a car guy

[Capin-Neemo]

Take it into them and just say what the diffenances are it might be a temp sender or something along that lines im pretty sure the altezzas have electronic temp gages so this maybe the cause or the thermo is slightly fdifferenf from factory spec although i wouldnt think that should be the case with a yota OEM one!

[Bling]

if it was me I wouldn't worry. I mean its not overheating, its just taking a bit longer to get up to temp. Perhaps the old thermo was shot and the new one is now reading as it should from factory.

Do you have the heater on at all while its warming up?

[Capin-Neemo]

I nomally wouldn't worry either but with modern cars the temp sensors are linked to the ecu and directly affect how long the car runs rich for warming up purposes and with the price of gas you want it running at its best best bet is to find a toyota dealer and ask them if the can quickly check the temp sensors with their scan tools other wise i wouldn't worry too much.

[sergei]

Usually the gauge sensor is different from ECU sensor.
There is possibility that old thermostat was sticking and running car hotter, but that should not change how fast the car would warm up.
The only thing could affect on how fast car is warming up is that there is a bypass (wrong size thermostat, improper seal/fitting) or thermostat does not closes completely (faulty thermostat).

[Capin-Neemo]

um it would affect how long the car warms up if he is taking the warm up time from the guage and its sender is faulty and sometimes they are shared temp senders but im agreeing you are probably right that the old thermo was probably warming up to far too fast hence why it has been replaced in the first place 7km isint too bad for warm up time really my 97n sprinter takes at least 6 to 7km of 70km/h drving before it warms up. and the heater on full hot will make it take much longer works like and extra rad when its cold

[sergei]

um it would affect how long the car warms up if he is taking the warm up time from the guage and its sender is faulty and sometimes they are shared temp senders but im agreeing you are probably right that the old thermo was probably warming up to far too fast hence why it has been replaced in the first place 7km isint too bad for warm up time really my 97n sprinter takes at least 6 to 7km of 70km/h drving before it warms up. and the heater on full hot will make it take much longer works like and extra rad when its cold

Actually what I said is that even the old thermo was stuck closed it would not affect how fast it would warm up to normal temp. The only reason why new thermo takes longer to warm up is that there is still water circulating through radiator.

[barryogen]

hmmm, it has been exceedingly cold this week too... I'm not too concerned, just wondered.

[sergei]

hmmm, it has been exceedingly cold this week too... I'm not too concerned, just wondered.

Yeah that would affect it too

[79rolla]

any chance that its a dud thermostat??
or maby you had an aftermarket thermostat in it befour??
but just be glad its not ovrheating!! lol

[nz_climber]

Not really adding anything in here, but on the altezza there is only 1 water temp sensor to the ecu, then the ecu feeds the signal to the gauge cluster.

[Titties]

i would be worried if it's not warming up quick enough.
just because it's cold it shouldn't really limit how fast it heats up.
indication probs for water temp could be heaps of things, probably the worst being no flow over the sensor.
Do you have oil temp gauge too?

[MAGN1T]

It wouldn't harm to change the sensor for a pick a part sensor.

Steve

[Titties]

they have altezza's at pick a part?

[barryogen]

thanks guys, but for whatever reason, it is now fine, shows "normal" at about the same point as it used to... nothing has been changed, so not too sure why.

down south we don't have pick a part unfortunatly... just dodgy smelly wreckers that charge too much.

[MAGN1T]

Dirty/ loose connection on the sensor. BTW there's only a few different types of sensor, they're usually interchangable amongst families (of cars)

Steve