Quick question... I have been driving my zx the last few days & I have noticed that the car doesn't reach operating temp. ( in a 15 min drive, get maybe 2 lines on the digital gage). Does this mean that the thermostat is stuck in the open position? Any suggestions?

 

That is the most likely cause and the easiest to remedy. If you don't know when the last time it was changed, I would start there and maybe flush or drain and refill the coolant. If that doesn't fix it, we move on to the next thing...

Rod.

 

its most likely a bad reading from the tem sensor. might need to clean the connection or get a new temp sensor..

 

I am the original owner so probably the thermostat was replaced at the 30,000 mile dealer service ( in 1985), if not it is original. That was the last time I took the car to the dealer. I will try that first... & see if that helps... thanks!

 

If it's been that long, just pull the connector off the water temp sensor and clean the contacts, both on the male and female side with some electrical contact cleaner from Radio Shack.

Most likely you just have some extra resistence in the line as a result of corrosion on the contacts causing an incorrect reading.

If it doesn't change after that, get a new thermostat.

If you have an FSM and a volt meter, you can check the reading from the sensor to see if it's giving a low voltage reading before you spend money and time on a thermostat.

 

Wow Surge, Are You The Original Owner?

 

Yep! Original owner... I got her right out of college in July 1983... Paid $18,000 back then.

 

Wow... Longest Ive heard of someone having a car was 9 years.

Back to the topic:

I had the exact same problem (cept with a z31) and the thermostat was the culprit.

 

I would say to change out the connector on the Tstat. Not hard to do, and can be gotten at AutoZone for $3. Not a big deal...

 

I bought my 1980 280ZX in January of 2003 from the original owner...

Rod.