That was intentional to prop it open so they could drive it home. Just pull the hose and stick a twig in there and reinstall the hose.

I had one stick shut years ago on a Boss 302.
Drove home with a screwdriver stuck in the tstat.

For a temp fix to get home it sure looks like whomever did that decided to leave and not replace it.

I never thought about doing that and I had thermostats fail when I was younger.  Aren’t they all pretty much fail safe now where they fail and stay open?

I've had three thermostat failuires, one was stuck open (I beleive this is rare), one stuck closed until the engine got really hot, then opened and this kept cycling back and forth on my 20 mile ride home, the last stuck in some mid-condition, it was winter and as long as I kept a lower speed the engine remaining cool enought to get me home.   

On a November trip home and an overnight stay in WV I woke up to freezing temperatures in
morning.
I tried to warm the car up to get the windshield cleared  thinking it would eventually warm up so I headed for home after figuring out the fail safe t stat was stuck open.
After about a half hour of driving with no heat I pulled over at a convenience store and got a piece of cardboard to put in front of the rad.
Even with the rad fully blocked off the engine barely warmed up just enough to get a bit of heat into the car.
Good thing the t stat was not stuck closed.

It was funny....  but also fascinating.

Rudi wrote:

On a November trip home and an overnight stay in WV I woke up to freezing temperatures in
morning.
I tried to warm the car up to get the windshield cleared thinking it would eventually warm up so I headed for home after figuring out the fail safe t stat was stuck open.
After about a half hour of driving with no heat I pulled over at a convenience store and got a piece of cardboard to put in front of the rad.
Even with the rad fully blocked off the engine barely warmed up just enough to get a bit of heat into the car.
Good thing the t stat was not stuck closed.

I was at Cameron Trading Post AZ one December morning, when a guy asked me for a jump start. He said the fan belt had started squealing for 3 hrs before the battery ran flat and it stopped, while driving during the night.
I asked him if he'd lost the fan belt or the alt had died. His explanation was that the water had frozen, while driving, and stopped the waterpump from turning, causing the alt to not charge!! WTF! Is that even possible??

Last edited by 50vert (10/01/2024 8:06 PM)

Yeah, I don't think that's possible.  The water pump may have seized, that I would believe.  AND, its not uncommon to refer to something seized as having "froze up". 

Normal tstats are not fail safe design. Fail safe units are more expensive and harder to find.  The local auto parts counter monkeys just looked at me funny when I asked for one.