just brought a new thermostat for my car as this 1 has all the symptoms of being stuck open (80 mile trip in the mornings and the temp dont even get off the white bar, and does 250 miles to a tank at best)

any pics of where i can find it and how to replace it would be useful, aswell as how to drain the coolant if needed etc.

thanks

Edited 14 March, 201115 yr by m60_maniac

Most of the coolant will drain out when you remove the pipe to be fair

The thermostat is inside the housing which can be found by following the lower radiator pipe towards the engine block. Where it attaches, there should be a plastic nozzle type thing which is held on with 2 bolts. Remove these and bingo :) thermostat is in there.

ok thanks, ill have a look tomorrow morning. got to do my dizzy cap and rotor arm at the same time, and replace both tail light bulbs as i got pulled for them both being out -_-

it better be sunny tomorrow lol

that is unlucky. Thats why I check them every so often

Good luck with it. Just hope your's isn't bodged like mine was, so I ended up having to replace the whole housing

If I were you I would buy a thermostst housing (THERMOSTAT COVER)(only about £7) as this is the real cause of your problem...

Housing bridge breaks--engine overheats--remove thermostat to stop overheating--engine runs cold...

Someones had you thermostat out and if you replace it without the new cover your engine will go back to overheating.

Good luck

http://www.clubpolo.co.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=155093

Full story here

I've had this problem and I would definitely suggest you buy the whole housing. Basically, when the thermostat opens within it's housing it puts a huge strain on the two screws which attach the housing to the main cooling housing. (It's this strain which causes the common problem of the bridge for the pin shattering, and locking the thermostat shut.) It's a bad design imo, but I won't rant on about it.

So, if you were to only replace the housing flange for the thermostat, it would involve unscrewing and then re-screwing the two screws which hold it in place. These were only designed to be screwed in once, so it greatly weakens the join between the main housing and the thermostat housing if it's re-assembled. You want it held TIGHT, otherwise the next time your thermostat opens, it can literally pull the whole thing apart, spewing coolant everywhere! (which happened to me...)

Another advantage of replacing the whole housing is that you can assemble the thermostat in it's housing to the main component with ease. If it's all still attached to the car, it can be quite fiddly to locate the thermostat in it's seat, and it's hard to be certain if it's in properly.

If you're not wanting to buy the whole thing, then you can just get the new thermostat and housing flange, but remove the old main housing, and fabricate it so you can fit some bolts to hold the thermo housing to the main housing. All seems a big hassle, but you'll regret not doing it if you're housing all pops apart.

As for draining the coolant, you can pop open the blank bung next to the temp sensor, and collect it with some form of container below. You might as well flush it all through with some new coolant just for peace of mind.

Hope that helps.

cheers for the advice, havnt done it yet so ill probs get my mate to do it, hes a mechanic so shouldnt take him too long. if it overheats then ill get a new housing, ill try this for now though as i have the thermostat here already

replaced the thermostat myself as i was bored today....not as hard as it looks but rather messy :p

running nice now, up to temp in 2-5 minuites and holding at 90....lets see how many miles i now d for a tank....better than 250 would be nice -_-

Lets hope so :) i can get around 270 miles on 3/4 of a tank

Can do 220 miles on 1/4 of a tank on a long run up to Scotland

blody hell, pretty good in comparison.

still not running perfect, hating right but i think the lambda or temp sender are gone, tho i have a hole in my exahust so might be that