Dear Nairaland , I wish to start this thread due to the incessant reports from car users and mechanics alike complaining about high temperatures in the engine, when a tokunbo vehicle begins another life here in Naija.

I appreciate we do not manufacture vehicles here in naija, neither am I claiming to be a guru, But my opinion about this temperature issue has to do with so many things ranging from all the cooling systems,

- Radiator (leaking, extremely dirty)
- Water pump (how efficient it circulates the cooling fluid/water)
- Neatness of your car engine (how often do you blast those caked mud, mixed with grease etc off ur car especially around the combustion chamber?)
- How effective is your cooling fan? (usually works via a relay)

these are some of the issues that should be considered and checked before allowing that mechanic to start dismantling your water pump, radiator, fan etc.

I have used both Japanese and a Benz, and would like to share my experience on these, for the Japanese, I have never had any issue with over heating, in fact I nearly made a mistake when out of curiosity and ignorance of my mechanic, removed my thermostat , after using car for some 6months I have to put back the thermostat because I realized I was wasting fuel, because the engine was never attaining its optimum temperature to burn efficiently.

for the Benz, due to my ignorance about how that great car is, I didn't know the water in the radiator was almost empty, even though the temp shot up, so I had serious over-heating problem, the water pump failed , etc etc,

luckily it didn't damage the gasket, so far so good I have dealt with the whole issue, the car I bought naija used with AC cooling fan connected directly as many would have it, was reversed to factory setting, the thermostat was replaced with the accurate rating of 87deg C. as against the 71 deg C sold as new or just removing it ,

the manufacturers says the working temp of that engine is 87 deg C, and the fan automatically kicks in @ 100 deg C, even at over 90 Deg C, the book says all is well with d engine, so far I have saved fuel and the temphas never reached 100deg C even @ serious lag traffic and have not driven my toyota for a while, lol


WHATS UR STORY ON UR CAR TEMP? lets have ur own, SO OTHERS CAN LEARN FROM IT

just replaced my thermostat with its recommended one. 87deg, for MB C200. from when engine is cranked to 5min later it attains the 87deg and stops there while idling. but when driven off immediately, it takes shorter time to attain the 87deg.

I dont know the rating for other cars, but I am sure irrespective of regions, there is an optimum temp required to burn fuel constantly in a combustion engine,

lets have ur experiences,

The average temperature daily from this time would hover between 30-32 centigrade with a feel of about 37 or 38 degrees centigrade.

how ready is your ride to face the high temperature this period?


remember to dash off from that mechanic suggesting you should remove your thermostat in order to resolve an over-heating problem..