Long? heat up

Normally my buick has the needle on the temp gauge about halfway up, during the summer it gets there after about 3 miles easy, and didn't seem to take much longer last winter either, but this winter it takes over 6 miles and this is 55-60 MPH and now it's just barely starting to creep to the first mark after C by the tiem I drive 6 miles, and that's even with me a couple times leaving the transmission in 3rd instead of letting it go into overdrive.

Just wondering if others here have had this as normal operation or if I'm going to have to start looking into doing some coolant system work.

Also out of all my vehicles listed in my signature right now my buick here takes the longest to heat up while driving, if I let it sit she warms up faster.

My 92 had a SLIGHTLY stuck open stat. About 1/8". It was enough that in the winter I would get heat stopped, then it would get cool on the highway. Also, in real cold weather, the trans fluid was over cooled by the cold rad tank so it wouldn't shift to overdrive. Fixed by a new Delco stat.

I agree with Jay sounds like a stuck open T-stat.

well put a new fail safe 180 degree t stat in but now if anything it's almost worse after 6 miles the car is about a quarter of the gauge up but then stomp the throttle getting onto the highway and temp drops before slowly coming back up and in the end it's just under the halfway mark after twelve miles and 55 to 75 mile an hour driving. but then temps this morning where in the single digits, I'm almost wondering if it could be something with the fan clutch as it does have the mechanical fan.

So the car does get up to temp even at highway speeds just takes what seems to me an abnormally long time.

well this sucks, yesterday and today, the temp gauge in the car never got to the second mark and had no heat for the 12 mile drive to work and then later on back home, like I said replaced the thermostat, and didn't seem to have any real effect on the issue, so tomorrow I'm going to try and put in a new fan clutch and see if that fixes the problem.

have you tried to flush the heater core?

I just did that on the wife's car and it made a big improvement in heat output. it didn't change anything as far as where the temp gauge reads.

I have flushed the heater core with no problems several times and was getting beautiful heat until this long warm up and now no warm up problem, but even when I use the climate control system to check coolant temp the highest I've gotten after a twelve mile trip was 120 F, also this morning I put a the new fan clutch on and later took it on a six mile drive into town and she only got up to 116 f.

Unless I got a crappy thermostat that's already failed.

as a mechanic I know likes to say "new stands for Never Ever Worked"

well hope it was just a manufacture defect that caused the problem. But now I'm not sure I want to use a fail safe thermostat again with how this one went out, and how quickly.

popped off the housing to check the thermostat and found that the pin that sits in the middle of the bridge on the thermostat had somehow jumped out from under the bridge and was cocking the whole thing to one side, which of course meant there was no way for the thermostat to seal, so popped the old thermostat back in, started the car and within a couple of minutes it was already hotter then it had gotten on a twelve mile trip, so see how the old thermostat holds up and maybe the original problem was just the fan clutch which I have now replaced the other day.

sucks when new parts are no good!

well when I put the new radiator and water pump in I also put in a new Grant premium 180 degree thermostat and just a couple days ago went on an hour and a half drive from De Pere to Stevens point, during the entire trip the coolant temp never got over 167 degrees, so once I got there I put the old thermostat back in and today on the way home the car did get up to 180, but that was almost an hour after I started driving.

I do have a new ACDelco 180 degree thermostat ordered, but find it odd that I have now had two bad thermostats back to back and was wondering if anybody had any other ideas as to what could be causing the engine to have such a hard time warming up, also I have already replaced the heavy duty thermal fan clutch with a new one

seems strange that two different thermostats would be bad. I suppose it's possible...

have you tested them? pop them in a pot of water on the stove and use a thermometer to see if they open at the correct temp. you have to watch as they should start to open before what ever temp they are rated for and be fully open at that number.

ok past due somewhat update.

got the new ac delco 180 thermostate installed, and thet car gets up to operating temp but it still takes about 12 miles of country and highway driving 55-75mph.

one day did run the car with the mechanical fan drive belt off and no noticeable difference to how fast the car warmed up, but have noticed a severe drop on temp gauge if idling and car gets to temp and then stomp the gas where the needle drops nearly a quarter of the gauge. tempted to block off part of the radiator this winter to see if that has any effect unless someone else has any other ideas.

Do some detective work. Cold-start the car, and then see if the heater hoses get HOT before the main coolant hoses even start to warm up.  I've had similar thermostat troubles and that's always a dead giveaway.

Before you put in a new thermostat. boil it on the stove and see if it works.