How does a car thermostat work? The thermostat in your car is actually an important component of your car's cooling system. Basically, its job is to regulate how much coolant is circulated back into your engine and how much is refrigerated through the radiator before being returned to the engine. The temperature of the engine and your battery are regulated by this thermostat.
Once you start a cold engine, a valve (thermostatic valve) is opened, permitting the coolant around the engine to regulate the correct working temperature. It uses a wire that senses the temperature of the fuel and opens a sensor to allow only the specified amount of heat to be conducted through to the block. As the engine cools while running the temperature of the fuel decreases, and the sensor detects this change and opens a metal channel to allow the heat to flow through to the block. As the temperature of the fuel continues to decrease the channel is forced open slightly as more heat is allowed to flow through. When the temperature reaches a specific threshold, the channel is closed to prevent further heat transfer.
Your car's thermostat is also designed to protect the engine from overheating. The thermostat works with a series of relays to monitor the temperature. The temperature sensing relay contacts are mounted on your radiator cap, on the engine block side of the radiator, and on the engine's side skirt. When the engine begins to overheat, it first uses the lower relay, then uses the higher relay, and finally bypasses the lower radiator cap. Once the engine has cooled down, it goes back to the lower radiator cap and so on.
To conclude, a working thermostat in your vehicle can provide you with very good efficiency. The most important factor is that the thermostat tells the engine to cool down when the engine is not hot enough. With a thermostat, you can limit the amount of heat that the radiator cap allows into the engine compartment so that it never gets hot enough to damage anything. It also prevents the engine from damaging its radiator cap. However, before purchasing a thermostat, you should make sure that it has the correct specifications to be effective in your vehicle.
If you need car thermostat repair, we invite you to bring your vehicle to our auto repair shop today!