Now make sure you have your radio code ready because you have to remove the battery to remove the tank in order to drain the tank and replace the one way valve. So I do all that just to figure out the one way valve is no valve at all (no tips from the dealer on this one either as I explain the situation to him) but a simple plastic cylindar meant to prevent the hose from wearing on the clip it is attached to on the tank. Come to find out that the hose simply is attached at the bottom of the tank and runs to the radiator cap where it takes or gives water according to the pressures inside the cooling system which are generally cause by the heating and cooling of the engine. So I took off the radiator cap to find one of the rubber seal had wore out and split in two and so this became the # 1 culprit because all along the temp gauges never budged a degree and that is where the extra pressure always came from in the past.
I went the auto parts store and bought another cap, the original probably wore out quicker than it might have if I had not changed to a anti freeze in the winter and water in the summer scenario which requires one to remove and replace the cap as many times as it takes to get 95% of the anti freeze out of the car in the spring which is at least 4 or 5 times per year, and I have been doing it that way for a year before I published it here. So now I am a happy camper because I just drained my tank and got 9 and half years out of a cap that only cost about $7 to replace and that's my kind of dealeo, plus I had my code so now the radio works without having to pay $40 to get the code back. (I later found the card code in my wallet, but in a pinch some years back I had to pay).
So now i'm on the tank again like a hawk, I don't where the water goes to need to be replaced in the tank if there are no visible signs of water leaving the engine compartment, but 2 to 3 years after I bought the car the tank would need checking and filling, and I heard all sorts of horror stories if you let the tank run dry. You never smell the anti freeze on the way out, but the tank is low for some reason, so it was what it was.
Well, low and behold I check the tank a couple days later to find the damn thing filled up again, and now I think I'm about to start steamin just to figure out what in heck is going on here. I know the water pump is working because the water temp is fine, and its not leaking anything, and that's my first signal that the pump is the problem so next I turn my attention to thermostat. I start by purchasing one, and the gasket used with it also. This job is not listed in the manual, for good and profitable reasons, but next time I would replace this every 5 years no matter the condition. [In the past when we had radiator or over heating problems, it was simply easier to pull the thermostat completely and the problem was always resolved, before that we just turned on the heater in the summer, which was okay until you moved down south, and then your body would take the toll. It worked until winter, when then you didn't know why you had no heat on your feet and that lead back to thermostat and the trial and error of an over heating motor.]
The housing is located below the upper hose, first remove the plastic wiring harnnes and the bracket too, this will save your knuckles from getting torn up in this procedure, once removed with a10mm socket , keeping the lower hose attached, you will have pry out the thermostat with a screwdriver and some water will flow out. The direction of the flow of water through the system is from the lower hose, and into the thermostat. Which opens from the heat of the engine block.
It was tough to see at first, but a wonderfully designed part is what created the over flow problem to begin with, and if you were to have to have brought this problem to the dealer, you could be looking at a hugh bill if the dealer decided you needed a water pump, and or a timing belt, or a whole host of scenarios depending on which path he decided to take you at that moment [there is no doubt in my mind at this point] Because upon close inspection of the thermostat you will see a strong rubber gasket which has moved into the flow pattern of the water pump and caused a blockage of the flow through the thermostat. This is what caused the tank to over flow, and even more than that, the efficiency of the cooling system is compromised because of this. Now these cars and my methods were enough to prevent an over heating of the motor, even though the water stopped circulating, but the real improvement was in the transmission, the transmission cooler is located at the bottom right hand corner of the radiator, which had no flow because of the design of the thermostat and the position of the cooler. I noticed this as I cruised controled at high speeds, the transmission did not down shift as it usually did because now it was operating more efficiently. I removed the part of the rubber which can be seen at the tip of the ice pick in the photo. The new thermostat did not have this extended rubber part, which is how I figured all this out.
Its a tricky little design meant to get you to put trust in the dealer, and for him to profit handsomely from it, just not in this case.
