How to prevent overheating?

[austinpetemo]

At highway speeds its fine, as soon as i go thru a drivethru or get stuck at a light for a long period of time, the needle inches up into the red...

[xxMichaelAnthony]

Either your fans aren't kicking on, your t-stat is bad or you have a blown head gasket.

Originally Posted by whimsicalpouch2

i'm pretty sure you can just get an intercooler on the focus without getting a turbo. right?

Sure but it would be completely pointless. Even then cooling down intake air would make no difference in coolant temperature.

[austinpetemo]

How hard is a head gasket to replace/check? I may replace all of it if one of them will solve the problem

[Jakefrom]

Think its the T-Stat. Mine did the same thing as yours. Had the engine practically rebuilt with all new gasgets but forgot to replace the T-Stat and turns out it went bad and wasn't opening properly to allow the coolant to flow correctly. Believe you are supposed to replace them around 100k miles but I may be wrong. Also check to see if the piping from the radiator is good as well.

[xxMichaelAnthony]

Replace the thermostat first. Its about $5 and 20 minutes of time. Does the low speed fan come on when you turn on your ac?

[austinpetemo]

Ive only got 80k, but ill deffinatly check it. It comes on when i turn my AC on, idk how much help that does now though since my AC went out on me a few days ago, its just blowing hot air now :/ anyways, were can i buy a new t-stat? do i need to go to a ford dealer?

[wrc_fan]

Just go to your local autoparts store and get a thermostat and housing. The housings are an issue too, best bet to just replace both.

[Sniper Focus]

I've had bad luck with parts store/aftermarket performance thermostats in the past. Get an OEM Motorcraft it wont cost anymore than the cheaper ones.

[00texaszx2]

what you could do is turn on the heater the heat will be sucked from the engine bay into the car but it will be enough to get you to where you need to go my car doesnt have a.c. but it never really over heats either,just a suggestion until you get it figured out, if yo blow the headgasket its a pain to mess with so, id prefer to sweat a little than walk a few miles or wait for a ride.

[wrc_fan]

I recommend you fix this issue sooner than later, if you are overheating due to a thermostat issue, continually overheating the car can lead to other failures (such as a head gasket). Choosing a ford part, or a third party part is up to you. Personally, I only get my ford parts from Tousley ford, because my local ford parts counter is useless.

The thermostat and housing is an affordable part, and if its 10 yrs old, you can't hurt anything by replacing it. Also note, if the coolant system is all original, take care with those old hoses.