Shortly aftter I bought my 95 SW1 in October of 2002, I noticed that the temp gauge only went about 1/4 of the way up. I replaced the thermostat with one from the dealer and the gauge stayed at 1/2. It has always taken a bit of time to get there, but it got and stayed there. It also takes a good 10 to 15 minutes to get heat up, but when it comes up, it is good and hot.
Other people have told me that their Saturns warm up very quickly!
When it started getting cold here, the temp gauge again started only going
1/8 to 1/4 of the way up. On the highway it will almost get to 1/2. Ok, I figured, the thermostat has failed.Bought a new thermostat at NAPA this time, drained system this AM. Tested the thermostat which was installed, it seemed fine. I did notice that the thermostat housing has a weep hole in it.
Question: Is the weep hole supposed to be there? I don't think I have seen such a thing in any other car.
I put the new thermostat in the housing, verified it's operation, and installed it. Started the car and after about 15 minute of running the gauge barely moved. The coolant in the resovoir is tepid to the touch.
My next step is to go to the parts department of the dealer and see if they have a housing in stock that I can look at. If the weep hole is supposed to be there I am going to drain the system, disconnect the hoses from the radiator, plug them, refill the system,and run the car without a radiator in the equation to see how long it takes to warm up. If it