Question.. Since it's been cold lately I've noticed my coolant temp gets to 7 bars but when I'm cruising 30-45mph it drops to 6 bars and eventually rises back up to 8 bars and stays there.. Normally it runs at 8 bars.. Is this normal? Never did this when the temp was 40+.. Thought it could be thermostat but hasn't overheated... It's been on the mid to high 20's lately... Haven't checked if my fan turns on.. I don't sit in idle too long when I drive from and to work.. Recently installed AUT cooling plate.. Don't know if that has anything to do with it...

 

I'm concerned you got air in the cooling system during the cooling plate install. It can be very difficult to bleed these cars coolant. Its also a potential time bomb for your motor, so caution.

 

shouldn't have anything to do with it. but its really easy to bleed this car. put your heat all the way up, if its HOT than you prolly dont have air in the system

 

When you read the diy for bleeding air from our cars its quite complicated and messy. Nothing simple about it.

Air in the system can move around. Its possible to have good heat, but air is trapped in motor causing a hot spot. Then air can move around and later engine ok but heater not real hot.

His temp jumping around sounds like it could be air moving around.

 

Installing the cooling plate shouldnt involve opening the cooling system. It's just a plate that lays across the radiator support and towards the bumper. You only have to take off the radiator stays.

 

Does it continue even when the car is at full operating temp? Like after driving for 15 mins? I only ask because my car did the same thing the 2 weeks prior to winter storage. It would get to full bars, I would drive and it would drop to 6 or 7 and then stay there for a minute or so and go back up to 8. But after driving a little bit longer, it stayed a solid 8 the rest of the time.

 

Oh. I was thinking he meant the insulated intake manifold gasket (that is inteded to act as a cooling plate to shield IM from engine heat). I'm not familiar with this cooling plate on the radiator thing. Thanks for clarifying. Going to look it up...