Hay guys i have a question about a 98 AWD astro that i just bought.. I was just doing a radiator flush on it and i noticed that the bottom radiator hose felt wierd like something was in it so i took my flash light and looked in there and it looked like a spring and it also felt like there were more things in the hose as well. The antifreeze was very discolored and kind of gunky that was my main reason for flushing it, my assumption is that its parts from my thermostat that are in the hose.. I guess my question is that is it ok to drive like this for awhile till im able to get it fixed and also is that what it is is my thermostat?? Also the temp stays well below normal operating temp and the guy i bought it from said its been like that for along time, he's owned it sense 2000.. Thanks

 

The thermostat is on top of the engine, it allows (after it opens) coolent to the radiator via the top hose. Yes there is a spring in the bottom hose. If the coolent looks bad, and the hoses hasn't been changed in several years, do so along with the heater hoses (my suggestion).

I also frequent the oldspower board, and a topic of discussion is lower radiator hoses (new) not having the spring in them, so if you replace the bottom hose, make sure the new one has a spring, if it dosen't pull the one out of the old one. That spring keeps the hose from collapsing or restricting coolent flow to the engine.

 

Ok i thought the thermostat was on the top it kind of had me confused a little but im not a pro by any means with cooling systems so i just wanted to be sure.. All hoses look pretty good. Thanks kevinkpk i appreciate it

 

Coolant looked gunky? Sounds like it had green mixed in with orange. Make sure you flush it really good. Took 15 minutes of flushing before the water cleared when I flushed Grumpy from the POs mixing of coolants. Nasty brown sludge.

 

yeah it had globs of gunk in it and was a brown ish color so i ended up flushing it a few times then ran a cleaner threw it and flushed a few more times and all looks good so far so yeah thats probably what happend some one mixed the 2 different coolents

 

Well, you need the thermostat for proper engine temperature, hence the higher fuel consumption. Also, if the thermostat is missing it may not pass the smog check.