1999 Chrysler Sebring cooling

COLEMAN74

MEMBER
1999 CHRYSLER SEBRING
2.5L
V6
FWD
AUTOMATIC
171,000 MILES

Hello This morning while idling traffic my car steamed a tiny bit from the hood. The temp gauge did not go past the 1/2 mark. After accelerating the temp did drop dow to almost the 1/4 mark(normal) the car was warmed up after 20 minutes of driving. I did fill the coolant res. A week ago and, it is back down again. The water pump was replaced about 30,000 miles ago. So I seem to be burning coolant up. My commute is 30 miles one way. Do you think it is possibly the thermostat?

3 Replies

CARADIODOC

MECHANIC
33,864 POSTS

A thermostat won't cause loss of coolant unless the engine is overheating. The first thing I would do is have your mechanic perform a chemical test to see if a cylinder head gasket is leaking. That only takes a few minutes. The test involves drawing air from the radiator through a glass cylinder with two chambers partially-filled with a special dark blue liquid. If combustion gases are present, the liquid will turn bright yellow.

Once the head gaskets are ruled out, we can look at causes of running hotter than normal if that becomes necessary.