I recently bought a BMW "aftermarket" thermostat + housing on eBay... the new part was OEM, made by Bosch, essentially identical, but the BMW logo had been ground off for some reason. I got a new, perfect part for literally 30% of the price of one down the street at the dealer, including shipping.
Always use a genuine Subaru thermostat. Think of it this way - $40 for a thermostat shipped to your door is better than putting a new $10 in every 3 months.
When I stuck the key in the ignition, the temp needle pegged the far end of the hot zone. AAA towed it to the Nissan dealer and they put a thermostat it in for $50 or something and it worked perfectly after that.
I finally got around to installing a new thermostat/o-ring/housing and coolant reservoir/cap yesterday. When removing the thermostat, I noticed that the bottom bolt was VERY loose... I had done the thermostat without housing about a year ago now, had never leaked coolant before... My best guess is that I just didn't torque it enough and it slowly loosened, but only when cold (just a guess, but would help explain why no drips when car was running on ramps) and in small enough amounts that I did not notice a puddle on the ground.
today I replaced the thermostat on my GLI too. What a pain in the ass!!! my back hurts so bad!. Anyways it took me almost 6 hours to complete the job. Now the car feels a lot more powerful, the old thermostat was opening at 80oC so it was overcooled all the time, heater just blew mild hot not hotter as it should and it was burning gas like a v8, It was doing 16-18mpg at most in city driving. I just checked with VCDS and the engine temp is at a solid 93oC constant temp, I took it for a ride for about 10 miles and it did 28mpg so I am pretty confident that the old thermostat just plain sucked. 6 hours well spent!
I had a 96 and have done that job twice, make sure replace the thermostat otherwise it's a do-over several months later because you tried to save $20. Been there etc!! Change the belt, tensioner, water pump and thermostat.
I'll throw a lower temp thermostat see if I can get her temp to stay low as possible for now
never trust an aftermarket thermostat! Especially if it has MOTORAD stamped on it.
I bought and installed a Mishimoto thermostat that activates at 68°C, while my vehicle OEM (Original factory) thermostat activates at 88°C and fully opens at 100°C. With the Mishimoto thermostat (68°C), the coolant temperature basically stays 71 ~ 74°C when driving, from OBDII reading. Short Term Fuel Trim was OK, between -10% and +10%. I checked the spark plugs after one week, they were fine.
However, after three weeks (last Saturday to be precise), the Check Engine Light was on when I started the vehicle, and OBDII gave Code P0128. I searched the code online and got: coolant temperature fails to reach the proper operating temperature, or Coolant Temperature Below Thermostat Regulating Temperature. My thinking was the engine finally realized that the temperature was below the operating temperature, due to the Mishimoto thermostat.
Oreillys used to have Motorad thermostats that were 2-5$. Then they started carrying Murray, which are double the price. Guess what's in the box? Motorad. Cheap crap for a premium price.
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