How to replace your cars Thermostat

After finding that my car was ready to blow up cos it was reading rediculously high temperatures and overheating, I was told my thermostat was most likely at fault so I needed to replace it. At only around $20 for a new thermostat, it was certainly worth a try!

In the first pic is obviously my engine bay, every cars thermostat is obviously going to be placed in different areas but in general, you follow the hose at the top of the radiator towards the engine. This hose will lead to the thermostat.

You need to make sure when doing so that the car is cold, so let it cool down or do it first thing in the morning etc.

You will need:

A new thermostat housing gasket
A thermostat.
8-12mm Sockets or spanners
Flathead screwdriver

I picked up what I needed from Supercheap Auto for about 20 bucks for the both. The gasket was self adhesive...



This is where my top radiator hose connects onto my super dooper engine. The thermostat is located at the base of the thermostat housing, where the little arrow is, but is obviously inside. 2 Bolts is all the was required to take the it off but it was much easier to do when we disconnected the hose at the radiator, there will be some water loss, but not much when u disconnect it.



Righto, trusty ole Ni_Slo used a screwdriver to pry the thermostat out, and it comes out relatively easily.



There is a gasket between the thermostat housing and the engine, so u must clean both surfaces before you but it back on.



And also clean off remnants left on the thermostat housing, this took a little while to get off as its pretty caked on due to heat.



This is the old thermostat held up quite well as it appears pretty old and its a 13 year old car. It was pretty tarnished and yeh.



Now, just put the new thermostat into the engine along with attatching the self adhesive gasket to the thermostat housing. Then you attach the housing so it looks like this. You then re-attach the radiator hose and do up the hose clamp reasonably tight, but don't take it to the extreme.



So obviously some water had leaked out while doing this and air had made its way in, so we topped it up with demineralized water (or a pre-mix radiator coolant mix which is cheap from SuperCheap) and then my cooling system was doing its job running at a safe operating temperature, not one notch off the devestating "H" mark.

So all things aside it was a relatively easy job, i had Ni_Slos assistance and he knows what he is doing so all went well, and after all that the car was running sweet and should be back to this type of stuff in no time. Thanks to James (aka Ni_Slo) and poor widdle Amelia was stuck here on the intarweb while we went outsi de. Any questions feel free to ask. rowesyvn.

Just thought id like to point out, my engine is a series II model and the cooling system is a little different to that of a series I ive been told that the series I thermostat is at the back of the engine


Sucks the wang


Dave

.....ANd to test the thermostat - chuck it in boiling water and see if it opens

thansk for the article, i need to change mine this week - NICE SKID TOO

nyce, well that makes my job a hell of alot easier as i believe i have to the whole thermostat thing, so i will print this out and copy it, lmao, jj, nah but thanks for the pointers man, phat skid to. if i get stuck or bored ill call ya

very good aritcle davey, but yes your right the thermostat is located at the back of the engine on the Series 1 model vn's, along with there is no radiator cap on the radiator itself, it is filled up through the overflow tank.

woot hoo series 2

i got a crappy series 1 sucks the wang allright have to take off the whole dam throttle body setup


got the vns

can now see how the first thermo fucked itself. hehe nice one dave... good to see the commo can still pull a skidddd

might wanna give yourself a flush and some coolant, she looks a lil corroded

Nice article Dave. Did you check to make sure the new thermostat worked before you put it in? Only asking as 1 in 3-4 new thermostats are actually faulty. Easier to place it in a cup of hot water to see if it opens than having to pull stuff apart again and again. Did you bleed the air from the cooling system or just left it?

Nice work

Did you put a vn engine in a camira or am I seeing things :S

thats good

weres the skid?

It would also be a good idea to put it in a bunsen burner with warmish water but with wire looped around the part that opens and suspend the the thermostat half way up the glass then place the thermometer into the water, heat the glass up with a flame or on a stove top until the thermostat opens therefore drops to the bottom of the glass and record the tempreture at the time it drops and compare with the manufatures thermostat opening temp to see if it is not faulty.

just so i can get it right in my head...is that the L36 fireball???

Most certainly not.

It's a Buick 3800

might want to add that not all thermostats are off the top hose, it can be either side depending on make/model.

Dont forget to bleed all of the air out of the cooling system.