Daniel_Bos

The old bit of cardboard.... It works, but not nearly as well as having a thermostat! Just limiting airflow through the rad still allows all that extra coolant to circulate, drastically increasing warm-up time. Since most engine wear occurs during the first bit of running, it's essential for longevity to reduce thee time it takes for the engine to be up to optimal operating temps.

My thermostat is shot (coolant not getting up to temp, oil not getting up to temp, all diagnostic readouts low). I understand the thermostat is in a place that makes it a bit of a job to change. I'm not scared of work, but don't have the time to do it at the moment (have a 1000 sheep yet to lamb and 100 cows to calve), I also don't have time to wait for a garage to do it, plus I sort of detest incompetent "professionals" messing around with my car, leaving a crucial bolt loose, causing grief and costing too much... In a previous life, many centuries ago, I owned a rover 75 diesel (actually still one of my favourite cars, the swan-song mobile) which had a similar problem with thermostats sticking open plus unreachability, as well as running relatively cool due to pretty high thermal efficiency. The easy "fix" for that was to leave the old thermostat in place and put the thermostat from a renault 5 inside the top rad hose. It fits in snug enough to not need any fixing, costs are very low, and it's a 5 minute job to do. It worked really well, with the added benefit of opening a little hotter (it ran more efficiently, fuel-wise at higher temperatures) and cooling was never an issue seeing as cars are generally designed to cope with temps well in excess of what one might encounter in northern europe. Towing a heavy trailer up the hills in 38C, not an issue. So....., Is there any technical reason I shouldn't do this to my trusty Scout? By technical I mean following actual logic, not vag fanboy reasoning such as "if it was a good idea, the manufacturer would have done it"... I know it's not a "proper" repair, but if it gets me by until I have time (or more honestly, inclination) to fix it properly I'd be happy. Cheers, Daniel

My drivers side wiper has been touching my bonnet at the end of it's sweep (blades vertical) Is this a common issue, can I just move the arm 1 tooth down? Maybe related is the following: when i turn the ignition to on they move a little bit, almost like the motor takes up the slack. When I turn the ignition off they "relax" again. Is this normal behaviour?