mdb20

So I'm pretty sure that my thermostat is stuck open again. Between the 2 Teg's that I've owned, I've replaced the thermostat 4 or 5 times. The last 3 times, I've used the OE Honda part and had pretty good luck. The last one that I replaced was last winter. It seems like I can only get 1-2 years out of a thermostat and then they all seem to stick open or partially stick open. Always in the winter and they never stick closed in the summer or overheat. I notice more in the winter because it takes a long time to heat up, doesn't reach normal operating temp, or drops under hard acceleration. Once the thermostat is replaced with a new one, the problem is totally resolved. Has anyone else had this problem? I've had alot of scheduled maintenance done on my car, so it's running pretty well otherwise and is well maintained. The timing belt, water pump, valve adjustment, etc have all been done. I'm also getting an unrelated noise from the engine that gets louder as the RPM rises. It sounds like a "remote control car" or a whining noise at idle and louder as the revs climb. I think that it's either the power steering pump or maybe one of the pulleys. That's the area of the car that it seems to be coming from while under the hood listening for the problem area. It almost sounds similar to when the car is in reverse, but when it's in forward gears instead. Any ideas on this? Thanks for the help.

XSrcing

Your t-stat problem could be due to the extremes in temperature you get up there. I had to replace it once in both of my GS-R's.

The whining sounds like a bearing on one of the pulleys is going out.

mdb20

I checked the temp that's coming from the vents and it was reading 140-150 degrees which seems decent. The car still seems to be taking a long time to heat up though and the temp gauge fluctuates. Is there any way that this problem could be from the ECT sensor near the thermostat or the coolant temp sender near the distributor? I know the car is OBD 1, but I'd think that this would trigger a check engine light or something. Wouldn't the sensor or the sender either work or not work? They wouldn't work sometimes and not other times right? I'm pretty sure one or both of the sensors are tied to the coolant temp guage. Any ideas? At this point I'm still thinking that its probably something with the thermostat or just the really cold temperatures that we've been having in the Midwest for the last few weeks.