Hi guys,

Greetings from sunny Shetland!

Having a few problems with the wife's Felicia (2000 1.6 GLXi). Bought it 4 years ago for £1500 and it's given hardly any trouble until this week. Suddenly overheated a few days ago. Initially I thought it was the fan switch - replaced that to no avail. Then flushed the radiator, also with no change. Finally discovered (thanks to other threads on this site) that it is the thermostat (or housing) to blame.

I attempted to get the stat out last night, but one of the cover screws was fairly corroded and snapped off. Arghhh! Trying now to take off the entire thermostat housing so that I can attempt to drill out the screw or replace the whole unit.

I've managed to get all the bolts, hoses and electrical plugs disconnected, but the plastic pipe going from the back of the housing to the back of the engine somewhere has me stumped. It seems to have some sort of collar arrangement - I've never seen this before and I'm scared to be too rough with it in case I break it.

Does anyone know how this comes adrift?

Any help gratefully received!

Great site btw.

Collar arrangement?

The pipes at the back of the engine go to the heater matrix.

Mine overheated once, fan switch and stat replaced.

twice - waterpump. then head gasket destroyed.

Cover screws to what? to get the stat you need a spanner,

Hi - sorry I'm not describing it very well.

The cover was held on by two screws with hex head - 8mm socket to remove them.

The pipe is a fairly big plastic pipe (not the smaller rubber hoses - I've seen them) which runs from the back of the housing to the back of the engine somewhere.

Had another look at it - it's a kind of clip which holds the thermostat housing to this long plastic pipe at the back of the engine.

Any advice on how to separate the two parts would be very welcome!

if you pull out the plastic clip, you should be able to just pull it out of the thermostat housing, they can be a bit tough becuase it is retained/sealed by an o-ring, the other end of the pipe which goes to the water pump is also only held in by the o-iring and should juist pull out easily

Cheers Teflon,

Do I just pull the plastic clip downwards to release it?

(Apologies for being thick!)

it depends on which way round they have been but in, but you normally just pull up on them....

if you damage the clip, you can get new ones from german and swedish for about 50p

Thanks - I'll give it a bash. (possibly literally!)

I'm thinking to get a new thermostat housing to avoid any problems with this again. Any idea where would be the best place to source one? I found one on ebay for around £40 - not sure if this is a good price or not.

skoda dealers will do the whole housing for about £40,

but dont let them con you by telling you it only comes as a complete unit. all the different bits of the housing can be got for about a £5 each.

Just thought I'd let you know that i managed to remove the clip - easy once you know how I suppose!

I've also ordered the new complete housing from ebay - here's hoping this solves the problem.

Thanks for all your help guys

often when you overheat the engine, it sets into motion the demise of the water pump. so keep an eye on it.

Will do - thanks for the warning.

Is this a big job to replace? Timing belt off, etc I assume.