Apologies if you have already read this on the FB cmax owners page.

Last month we sold our mk1.5 Cmax and bought a 16 plate 1.6 petrol Cmax from Evans Halshaw. It only had 5k on the clock. After driving it to work a couple of times, I noticed the temperature gauge not getting to middle until 15 minutes of driving, while the old Cmax would get up to temp after 5 mins or so.

I booked it in to Evans Halshaw under the 3 months purchase warranty, and was told by their master mechanic there isn't a problem with the car. I told him I had data logged the last journey to work and it's not getting up to temp until 15mins and sent him the chart. They agreed to replace the thermostat which I'm still waiting for the parts to arrive.

The thing is, I was convinced it's the stat stuck open, but using my thermal camera, what I believe is the lower return hose isn't getting warm which is confusing me. If the stat was open, wouldn't this hose get warm quickly?

After a 40 min journey today, I got the camera out again and the hose still wasn't warm.

The hose image is took standing in front of the car looking at the left of the radiator. The top hose on the right gets warm after a couple of minutes, same at the hoses to the heater

I have known people to remove Thermostats because their cars have been losing coolant when they get up to full operating temperature, so when the Thermostat is replaced it would be good idea to keep an eye on the coolant level.

If your engine is a Turbocharged one then that hose might be an air hose to or from the Intercooler. If you remove the Coolant Cap and squeeze the hose you should see the water in the tank moving if it is a water one rather than an air one.

 

No turbo. I haven't had chance to take the cap off yet, but even after the engine is up to temp, say after 40 mins, the bottom hose is stone cold and very squishy.

Also I've noticed the two small pipes going into the upper part of the coolant reservoir has a lot of coolant flow. Is this normal?