Thought I'd wait till a really cold day to fit the new thermostat.....job done, fingers just thawing out!
I shouldn't grumble too much though - I was only holding the torch for my mate!
What a pig of a job. The instructions, like they always do, made it look simple, but there's not much room down there and, of course, none of the pipes had been off since the car was new, so they were all well baked-on! The hardest one to get off was the one at the back near the temp sensor, the one shown by the red arrow. The yellow arrow shows a little plastic tang that a spring clip sits behind, not mentioned in the instructions and only spotted by looking at the new thermostat trying to work out why the pipe wouldn't pull off! Great fun.
My mate drained the coolant at the start, reckoning it would save spilling it all over the side of the engine. He checked it for 'strength' too - still good for Siberian temps apparently! Anyway, reassembly only took 15 mins, as opposed to an hour or more taking it off. Started up, let it tickover, opened the bleed valve on the thermostat, all good - took it for a drive, 3 bars on temp gauge showing very quickly, 4 bars when parked up on tickover, and (I think) I can hear the fan cutting in when stationary too....and a red-hot heater again!
Pete
Nocto Diuque Venamur.
