Green temp light stays on (after flush & thermostat replacement) Solved!

[Jake]

The red menace rides again! It was the thermostat/gasket... the heat is alot stronger and hotter in the cabin and the green temp light went off with 5 min of being on. Thanks for all your help. I will be swing by this forum more often!

[Top_Fuel]

The original OEM gasket has a rubber ring = gasket around it.

So for those who need pictures (me included), if you buy a thermostat for a Mirage, it should look like this...

[Fummins]

I prefer pictures too. Attachment 26391Attachment 26392

[Jake]

I am guessing I may have damaged the original gasket (squished it) when attempting the first install, then tried to reuse it. It looked fine visually, but upon putting a fresh gasket in there, the gasket stood, what felt like, more proud of the housing thus making a better seal.

[Fummins]

That's good that you figured it out.
It's been taking my car 20mins before the temp light goes out. It's that time of year when C and F are the same, nard freezing -40 today.

[7milesout]

I have little competitions on how long I can keep the green light on. I guess it's green, it should be blue. But I can't remember colors too good.

Anywho, the longer it takes to go off, the less heat I've put into the system, by using less fuel. From the coldest it gets here I can only go about 1.3 miles before it goes off. About 2.5 minutes.

As I write this, it occurred to me if I start with the fan and temp setting both on max, that should pull even more heat off. I don't know, that might be pulling it off post thermostat, so doing that might not extend my light on range out any.

[foama]

@fummins: Here near Ludwigshafen it is currently freezing cold at -1°C. We wear long johns and extra warm socks. Minus 40°C would be unthinkable here. In the 60's it occaisionally went down to -26°C, nowadays the climate has changed a lot. It used to be one of the rainiest places on earth, endless grey skys for weeks, but now it is becoming increasingly arrid with 45°C summers without any rain. Last winter there was no snow.

[MetroMPG]

As I write this, it occurred to me if I start with the fan and temp setting both on max, that should pull even more heat off. I don't know, that might be pulling it off post thermostat, so doing that might not extend my light on range out any.

The Mirage has a resistive heater in the HVAC plumbing somewhere. It switches on at low coolant temps to provide a little bit of warm air before the coolant can deliver it. So blowing max "heat" when the coolant is cold will load up the alternator and cause you to use more fuel!

[Mark]

I am guessing I may have damaged the original gasket (squished it) when attempting the first install, then tried to reuse it. It looked fine visually, but upon putting a fresh gasket in there, the gasket stood, what felt like, more proud of the housing thus making a better seal.

I appreciate you sharing what worked. Sometimes people share problems, possible solutions are offered, and we never hear from them again.

I remember my radio cutting out at times. I found the thread on the yellow fuse box. I shoved that baby in, and my problem was solved. Great stuff for sure!

[Mark]

@fummins: Here near Ludwigshafen it is currently freezing cold at -1°C. We wear long johns and extra warm socks. Minus 40°C would be unthinkable here. In the 60's it occaisionally went down to -26°C, nowadays the climate has changed a lot. It used to be one of the rainiest places on earth, endless grey skys for weeks, but now it is becoming increasingly arrid with 45°C summers without any rain. Last winter there was no snow.

It's been a good winter for ice fishing if you have a boat! I think 1877-78 was like that? The year without winter some claimed.

Our winter arrived this week! I'm currently buried in snow (2nd time this week). I'll dig myself in the morning.

The climate has always changed. As long as I'm not blamed for the last Ice Age, I'm good!

My youngest daughter once asked my mom, "Grandma what was it like when the glacier came through here"? We got a chuckle out of that one, but we also lived in the driftless region, which is a small area of Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, & Illinois that never got leveled by the glaciers. My parents live in a part of Wisconsin that was leveled. My daughter understood all that, but she just got a little mixed up on the time frame of things