I believe mechanic has put in a new thermostat into my nearly dead 04 Piece of.....I mean Pacifica.

Which way should it be? Point towards motor.....towards radiator?

Would someone please tell me (with descriptive detail) exactly how it should be in?

THANK YOU!!!!

 

need to know what year and engine size plus I think it can only go one way

 

Its a 3.6L, & ure incorrect in that it can only fit in one way as I flipped it around inside the thermostat housing and it fits perfectly either way. I am just awaiting a definitely itive answer before I put goop on it and put it back in. I did purchase a new one, but when u go to the parts website it gives instructions via PDF file....when u open the file and try to enlarge of so u can actually see it, its so blurry one cannot tell.

I've had overheating problems for 7 months and 9 mechanics were unable to solve this mystery. I've literally had all I can take of this....I eat drink sleep and breathe Pacifica problems. Though, ironically, I never had any until I read an article titled "The Chrysler Pacifica, Chrysler's highest mistake in 30+ years", lol. And at that point I'd already had 180,000 miles on it. Now everything is falling apart.

Thanks...and I am anxiously awaiting your response!


RookieMom

 

Biggest mistake, that is, or should have been, not "highest", lol.

 

the spring par goes toward the inside of the engine
if all 8 of them have not atleast checked or replaced the thermostat then I would start over and take it to a dealer that would actually know about this kinda car if all 9 of them have no clue then u simply wasted money.
As for the biggest mistake that's your opinion of the issue dont take it out on the car because U have incompetent people working on it.



Now all of that aside I would say u have bad heads that's if all of the other simple stuff has been looked at like fans radiator water pump things of that nature.

 

Yep, its in backward. Pointy part (for lack of a better description), towards the block, spring toward radiator hose.

This was replaced LAST. It was also NOT the problem but dealer said "Look, we've been at this for 2weeks and can't find anything, so we'll replace that and a few more things at no cost", etc. But the problems were prior to that and I have old thermostat, tested it and is fine.

The problem is no one can get it to overheat while its there. I got it home over weekend and now, even without running it, the pressure under Rad cap is huge....without running it...open that cap and it flies off because of the pressure. In fact, now it doesn't run at all. I picked it up and found no water in it, mechanic must not have noticed that he DID finally overheat it....had said he'd driven for hours and it wud not overheat....(and now it wont start at all). Turns over no problem, but that's it.

I did find a great mechanic, finally....I just hope its not too late!


Thank you very much! Though, something tells me Im not done asking questions, lol.

 

ask away

 

Flipped thermostat around...springy side towards engine, pointy side towards rad hose. Still overheating. It doesn't give U any warning....gauge stopped going to HOT and n longer alarms. Overheat happens 10-15 mins into running. Have had new rad, new rad cap and thermostat.

Thank God no one has charged me for diagnosis (or lack thereof, lol).

What's my next step? (Water pump is OK & so are hoses). Oh yeah, this started the very second I pulled away from first mechanic who'd replaced transmission line (blew off+they replaced em 3 x cuz they didnt use c clamps with barbs the first two times). And tho I realize sh*t happens, I find it higly coincidental that this started the second I drove away). Anything to that?

Thank u very Mich for your replies ....I. truly appreciate it.

RM

 

as I said I think U have bad heads the 3.5 is known for having issues when low coolant and the heads warp

 

Let me introduce you to a term I coined myself....Pa$hitica