Hi all,

The temperature guage on my 99 escort does not move up from Cold. In fact the guage is past the C indicator and stays there. Even when the weather is not that cold sometimes the car has trouble starting. The air conditioning tends to be not as warm as i would hope, and doesnt warm up as fast as i would expect (not sure if this is related) Lastly, only on long highway trips, we get a p0125 code warning (via service engine soon). The definition for this code is:

"the engine coolant temperature (ECT) sensor indicates that the engine has not reached the required temperature level to enter closed-loop operation within a specified amount of time after starting the engine."

I have cleared this error maybe 3 or 4 times now. To me all these symptons seem related. Like i said this code only comes up when we do a drive which is 2 hours long on the highway, general in town driving does not set this off.

Is there anything anyone can suggest here? I am not all that familar with escorts but just wondering if there were any quick fixes (and appropriate instructions) that may fix this before i send it to the professionals. I did check the coolant level the first time it happened and it seemed to be ok, i could check this again though.

Thanks for any help !

 

Is the antifreeze level OK? (meaning -are you losing any from the radiator) How many miles are on the engine?

 

Most likely the thermostat....

 

Thermostat jammed sounds most likely.