Hello everyone,

I have a 2001 5.9L 4wd Durango and last night the temperature gauge got up near the red zone of the gauge. I was driving to our local Wendy’s which is about two miles from our house and I was nearly home when this happened (I had gone about 3 miles or so). I pulled to the side of the road and shut the engine off immediately. After opening the hood I found that the radiator felt cold, and the top radiator hose was warm.

In the last two weeks or so I have noticed that the temperature gauge occasionally seems to climb above the middle range briefly and get up to 60 to 70% of the gauge range while driving around town, then it dips back down, which it didn’t used to do in the 10 some odd years I have been driving my Durango. I suspect my thermostat is sticking closed occasionally because I am usually able to drive around with no problems.



Does anyone on the forum have any suggestions as to what the problem might be? Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

 

Definitely sounds like your thermostat is staying closed, replace it with a 180 degree one.

 

Thanks for your quick reply adukart.

This is a question for anyone on the forum. Are there any good references on the forum for how to replace the thermostat? I saw on the forum that there is a 2002 shop manual available, would that be a good reference?

 

the 2002 shop manual is a perfect reference for someone who has never done this before, just make sure you follow directions for the correct engine (the 4.7 and 5.9 will be different choose the right one from the manual)

 

Service Manuals: http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=c...b5ba589d1986ba

 

Thanks for all of your advice guys.