Hi All,

Please help - I have the dodgy thermostat problem on my T reg 1.3 Felicia. I've got hold of a new housing and thermostat from a local dealership, but now I've got to fit the thing! :confused:

I can see it's just a few bolts and hoses but I've never tinkered under a bonnet before so have a few, probably very stupid sounding questions!

1) The right hand side of the part connects into a loop between the coolant reservoir and the radiator - when I remove the hoses am I gonna lose all my coolant?

2) The left hand side has a hose running into the back of it - what's in that hose please?! Do I need to drain anything before taking it off?

Any general tips on what to expect during this job would be much appreciated as I'm pretty green!

Thanks all

1) The right hand side of the part connects into a loop between the coolant reservoir and the radiator - when I remove the hoses am I gonna lose all my coolant?

2) The left hand side has a hose running into the back of it - what's in that hose please?! Do I need to drain anything before taking it off?

That hose contains coolant.

I would say it's best to drain the coolant first, particularly if the coolant hasn't been changed in a long while. This is probably best done by detaching the bottom radiator hose, leaving heater control inside the car on full. While replacing the thermostat I would put a garden hose in the radiator top hose and let water flow through the radiator to flush it out. It would also be a good idea to send water through the engine block to flush that out but that's a bit more tricky. When reassembled (not sure if you need a new gasket and jointing compound with the plastic thermostat) I would fill with plain water, run the engine with the coolant cap off and wait till the fan cuts in then out and turn the engine off. Leave it to cool so you don't burn yourself when draining it - but do NOT let it freeze. Fill with g12+ coolant 50/50 with deionised water, you'll need to make up about 6 litres in total. Fill slowly to allow air locks to escape. To bleed system run engine with cap removed (cloth draped over the opening will help prevent splashing on paintwork) and when radiator fan cuts in squeeze the coolant hoses to try encourage air locks out. Leave it to cool and top up to max mark on coolant tank.

Welcome to Briskoda from an ex-Felicia owner. I recommend that you buy, or ask Father Christmas for, the Haynes manual for the Skoda Felicia 1995 to 2001. This explains in reasonable detail how to remove and replace the thermostst housing and should save its purchase price in that one job alone.

I partly drained mine. Remove hose going into stat housing just enough to drain the coolant part way. I caught mine in a small plastic container then poured it into a larger one. It's very easy this way without draining completly. Three bolts remove the housing and replace with the new one complete with stat.

Mick

My 1.6 ended up at a garage after this job went wrong for me. The housing cost over £50 complete with thermostat and sensor. The AA removed the stat after the engine overheated because it broke up and blocked the system. The weather was freezing and visibility poor. If you can work inside it would be much better. In the end I removed the thermostat and sensor thinking it would be easier to just swap them over because the housing seemed fine. The thermostat was easy enough. The sensor was a step too far. Loads of water poured out and a special clip which holds it in place defeated my cold hands.

Looking back, I wish that I'd just bought a thermostat which the dealer wouldn't supply on its own. The water pump expired during the operation.

Best of luck.

Thanks everyone for your replies - it's much appreciated.

I'm gonna have another look this afternoon - I don't want to drive home for xmas in a freezing cold car, but then again I do want the car to be able to drive!

Is it possile I could just pop out the sensor from the new part and just replace that? Sounds a lot simpler

Thanks again everyone

The problem will be the housing itself, it's a common problem, changing the sensor only will not help, it's not a long job to done, if you have all the bits.

Ok, decided to keep it simple - this was my first venture under the bonnet after all - just removed the hoses, drained the coolant, undid the bolts and removed the whole housing.

Feeling quite chuffed with myself I popped the new one on and set about tightening the bolts only for the uppermost one to shear off :eek:

This left me at a total loss but I figured I'd perservere and see how it fared just using the one bolt to tighten it on (the one underneath the housing).

Everything is reattached ok, new coolant in the system etc and I've had the engine running and been out for a test drive and all the issues I was hoping to solve have been i.e. car not sluggish anymore, engine temp reading properly and hot air I could cook my Christmas turkey with!

Problem is, with only one bolt attached even I can see I'm gonna be continually losing all the coolant out of the system sooner or later. Plus any other issues this will cause?

There's about half an inch of the shorn bolt still projecting from the engine block and my kindly landlord has suggested to me that this should unscrew if I can loosen it and then can be replaced with a new bolt/bit of threaded bar that will screw into the engine block at one end and can then project for me to bolt the thermostat housing back onto.

The next question then is, is this correct? I'm concerned that it's more complicated than this. Any help gratefully recieved! :(

Lazy option would be to stick a nut with a lock washer on the remaining bolt if possible. But half an inch should be enough to remove it with some mole grips and install a new bolt.

Job is done!

Eventually managed to remove the sheared bolt after running the engine to warm things up and then using a pair of mole grips - not that I came to this conclusion myself!

Replaced it with a new 2" piece of studding and everything is now gravy! And I can actually get home for Christmas without having to stop every 5 miles and refill with coolant

If you're reading this thread before doing the job yourself my top tip is: don't overtighten the nuts when putting the new housing on as those old bolts might just give up on you!

Thanks again to all here for you help and advice, particularly Anewman

Happy Christmas all!