Thermostat change in echo

[polaris9898]

Hello Everyone,

I have a question about the thermostat in my 01 echo. I know in my jeep (93 cherokee) it wasn’t advisable to change the thermostat temp because my jeep was older and ran in open loop until the oxygen sensors warmed up to proper temp. Originally if you changed the 195 stat to say 180 it would take the car longer to warm up and be in the open loop mode longer and burn more fuel.

Is this still true on my 01 echo? I don’t know if emissions/engine mapping have improved from 93 technology. The manufacturer went with a 195 stat but also offered a 160 performance stat. So I’m just stumped because if Toyota was offering oem 160 and an oem 195 offering maybe something changed, I dunno.

[ShadeTreeMech]

Most folks would go to a higher temp thermostat rather than a lower temp. By keeping the coolant cooler, more energy is wasted to warming the coolant which will lower you efficiency.

On my Maxima I have the grille nearly completely blocked off which decreases the warmup times, and I have yet to have a problem with it overheating. The ideal internal combustion engine would have extremely high operating temperatures, but modern technology isn't quite there yet. So we have to deal with the lower temperatures of around 195*