V70 2.4 n/a - coolant not getting to temperature
 

The coolant doesn’t seem to get to temperate on long motorway drives in cooler weather.
Ie. it doesn’t get to the halfway mark on the temperature gauge, it gets up to 1 mark off that.

But when driving in town the car mostly does get to temperature.

Car is a 2002 V70 2.4 n/a

Have attached a photo of the gauge taken after driving for about 45mins on the motorway.
PS I didn’t take the photo myself.

Do I need to replace the thermostat?
As the car is developing numerous minor electrical faults so I am not sure how much longer it will be economical to keep the car.
So don’t want to purchase an OEM thermostat if it doesn’t really need it.

Although it's not getting fully up to temperature it looks like it will certainly be getting hot enough to turn off cold weather fuel enrichment etc.

Changing the thermostat would probably solve the issue but if you're not sure about keeping the car then I'd just live with it.

Dead easy and cheap though to do a stat on a 2.4 n/a. Your engine management warning is on though, so maybe worth seeing what it’s grumbling about?

The thermostat on a 2001-2002 is a breeze to replace, just drain the coolant (mix only with distlled water). I bet your engine coolant doesn't even reach 70C with the needle in that position - normal temp is 85C-105C. Also see this video https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gOx3Q8vqoz4

Definitely replace the thermostat
The engine will get to proper operating temp much quicker and a engine at proper operating temperature uses less fuel and puts out less emissions than a colder engine

Plus the heater works better.

So nothing but lots of benefits to be had with a new thermostat.

Thanks for all the replies, really appreciated.

Since writing this post the car has developed another fault so I will see if this fault turns out to be expensive to fix.*
If it’s a cheap fix I will buy a new thermostat for it.

The engine warning light is on due to a fault code about upper fuel trim limit.
Swapped a £300 o2 sensor to try and fix it, it made no difference, so have given up throwing money at it for now.
Have some other stuff to try, but need to fix VIDA on my laptop first so I can diagnose that further.
( windows upgrades broke VIDA )

*Noise coming from the left hand side of engine bay.
Sounds a bit like a road digger/jack hammer but much quieter.

With the car idling the temperature gauge reached the middle position but Vida is saying the 'ECM - Engine Coolant Temperature' is only 82.35c
Does this mean the temperature sensor is also faulty or just that the coolant temperature gauge in the dashboard isn't very accurate?

Screenshot here:
https://my.pcloud.com/publink/show?c...WUPF1kvVTgm6BV

thermostat
 

I changed the thermostat 2 weeks ago after returning home from a 1000 miles trip. On the motorway the needle never reached the 12 o'clock position (although cabin heating wasn't that bad).
After installing the new (Gates) thermostat everything returned back to normal: consumption, interior heating and... peace of mind.
As far as I know changing the thermostat on a 2.4 is very easy compared to the D5 (where you have to remove the auxiliary belt, power steering pump and you need long torx screwdriver).
I only replaced the thermostat and kept the old housing.

Replaced the thermostat yesterday with an OEM Volvo one, was easy to do and the car gets to the correct temperature now.

Thanks for the help all!

Congrats....now you must tackle the "numerous minor electrical faults" your car has.