I was getting low mpg all of a sudden and happen to notice the needle drop below the 90 degree mark so I fugured the thermostat was getting stuck open.
Called the garage who quoted £120 to supply and fit, which seemed a bit steep when reading some of the posters on here saying they could do it in 15 mins.
I bought the thermostat and O ring from GSF and some coolant which came to about £13.
I tried using an angled socket and managed to undo top and bottom bolts and gradually pulled the housing away, I remember at the time thinking how the f**k am I going to get the bottom bolt back in? This wasn't going to be a problem though as the bolt dropped out and I couldn't find it anywhere! At this point I started to do what I should have done to begin with and started removing all the stuff in the way like the plastic pipe from the egr to the bottom of the engine and the alternator. I couldn't find the bolt so in the end had to get an M7 bolt from the local fastners place and bodge that on.
I can see that some people might be able to do the job with the alternator in place but I think you need some Ninja skills to get to everything back in.
If anyone who isn't a Mechanical Ninja is going to attempt this I would recommend the following:
1) Drain the coolant first, you will lose most of it anyway.
2) Make sure you have a lump hammer and a few bits of wood to bash the alternator back in place (Nightmare to line the bolts and openings)
3) Check the path of the alternator belt (take a pic before locking the tensioner)
4) Get some inbetween sized socket extension bars as all the sizes I had were too long or too short
5) If you want to do the job properly get a new housing as the housing has two plastic pins that hold the thermostat in place and these will bend or snap off when removing the housing.
If I had to do this again I could probably do it in about 2 hours.
Called the garage who quoted £120 to supply and fit, which seemed a bit steep when reading some of the posters on here saying they could do it in 15 mins.
I bought the thermostat and O ring from GSF and some coolant which came to about £13.
I tried using an angled socket and managed to undo top and bottom bolts and gradually pulled the housing away, I remember at the time thinking how the f**k am I going to get the bottom bolt back in? This wasn't going to be a problem though as the bolt dropped out and I couldn't find it anywhere! At this point I started to do what I should have done to begin with and started removing all the stuff in the way like the plastic pipe from the egr to the bottom of the engine and the alternator. I couldn't find the bolt so in the end had to get an M7 bolt from the local fastners place and bodge that on.
I can see that some people might be able to do the job with the alternator in place but I think you need some Ninja skills to get to everything back in.
If anyone who isn't a Mechanical Ninja is going to attempt this I would recommend the following:
1) Drain the coolant first, you will lose most of it anyway.
2) Make sure you have a lump hammer and a few bits of wood to bash the alternator back in place (Nightmare to line the bolts and openings)
3) Check the path of the alternator belt (take a pic before locking the tensioner)
4) Get some inbetween sized socket extension bars as all the sizes I had were too long or too short
5) If you want to do the job properly get a new housing as the housing has two plastic pins that hold the thermostat in place and these will bend or snap off when removing the housing.
If I had to do this again I could probably do it in about 2 hours.
