Skoda Felicia was running cool - fixed

[james]

Hi Guys,

Just thought I'd share this on here. My Felicia that I just bought, mint 26k miles, 2000 X Reg, was running cool. After reading some stuff on here looked very likely to be the thermostats that I now know after reading on here have a habit of failing after a few years and staying in the "open" position. This means that engine coolant is constantly being circulated around the whole system which has the effect of keeping it far cooler than it is supposed to be. With the later MPI ECU controlled cars this can have the effect of making them run poorly as the car is never up to temperature so the ECU thinks the car needs to run rich until it warms up. Not good for your wallet or, no doubt, the cat.

So with a renewed confidence and armed with information from Briskoda, I invested in a new one from My link which cost all of a little over £10.

I fitted it myself and it took a little over 15 minutes to do, lost a bit of coolant which I collected and re-used. So after only £10 or so and 15 mins work, the Felicia is running like the new car virtually is.

Hope this might help anyone who has the same problem, and thanks to this site I now know how to fix.

[TeflonTom]

did you get any pictures whilst changing it?

[RainbowFire]

Would this be true for the 1.6 too? Mine never gets the needle to the 'normal' mark unless I sit in traffic for a few minutes, and does seem to take a rather long tiome to get off the base mark in the first place. (And I hit the motorway in less than 2 minutes in the morning)

Cheers

Alex

[TeflonTom]

yeah change the thermosta alex, dont buy a cheapo one though on the 1.6 engines, get a proper genuine one from the dealer, i replaced mine about 4 times before i went for a genuine one which fixed it

[RainbowFire]

Thanks Tom

Jorily or Dealer? (Dealer is actually 5 min walk down road and is the dealer that 1st sold the pickup in 2000)

[TeflonTom]

go to the skoda dealer, it will be more expensive for a genuine skoda one though

[RainbowFire]

Okies. Do these suffer the 'plastic clip' problem like the 1.3?

[TeflonTom]

not really no, i've just looked through my photobucket pages and i can't find a pic of the inside of one for you.. the thing to be very careful of on the 1.6 is the screws that hold the thermostat cover on are self-tapping into the plastic housing and they sometimes strip out when you over-tighten them

[RobinSLXi]

Sort of, but in a much easier-to-deal-with way. There's a bar across the inside of the plastic cover/outlet hose union that the 'stat pushes itself closed open against - it doesn't seem to be as common, but the one on mine was broken (as well as the 'stat having disintegrated). In this case though the cover is a common VAG part and readily available on its own.

edit: here's a pic nicked out of Google's cache

http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSBtMhCNTSwLE2msgNIBAEzEXnJm7ytr_Vv7N7HEOuMiqdC_xUX

Edited 23 January, 2011 by RobinSLXi

[james]

did you get any pictures whilst changing it?

Sorry no, I should have but I didn't!

[Marty61]

Hi. My Felicia was the same when i bought it in Oct 09. I got the Stat and housing from Jorily and it fitted a treat. The latest version has the stat held in with a circlip so you can change only the stat next time. Great idea.

Edited 19 January, 2011 by Marty61

[rigsby]

Sort of, but in a much easier-to-deal-with way. There's a bar across the inside of the plastic cover/outlet hose union that the 'stat pushes itself closed against - it doesn't seem to be as common, but the one on mine was broken (as well as the 'stat having disintegrated). In this case though the cover is a common VAG part and readily available on its own.

edit: here's a pic nicked out of Google's cache

http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSBtMhCNTSwLE2msgNIBAEzEXnJm7ytr_Vv7N7HEOuMiqdC_xUX

I had two of these bars snap on my fun , when they go, it will overheat. After second time, i always carried a spare, and tools in car to change it

[RobinSLXi]

I had two of these bars snap on my fun , when they go, it will overheat. After second time, i always carried a spare, and tools in car to change it

Duh! You're quite right, as I currently have the thermostat housing in bits in my kitchen I can see I got that the wrong way round. I guess I was misled by it being broken on mine with the 'stat stuck open (due to being in pieces too).

[rigsby]

It needs the bar to push on to open the stat

[RainbowFire]

yeah change the thermosta alex, dont buy a cheapo one though on the 1.6 engines, get a proper genuine one from the dealer, i replaced mine about 4 times before i went for a genuine one which fixed it

Finally done this! It's stopped rain enough to get some bits done. Picked up an OE thermostat for £15.82 from the local dealer (within walking distance). Fitted it, ran it with straight water, as the coolant drained out whilst I was swapping them. Took the old girl for a spin, watched the temp guage rise to new heights. Now on the motorway the needle sits just on the top of the 'normal' mark (so more horizontal than before). Will do the coolant tomorrow or monday at work.

Have to fill up on monday too, so will be able to see if it makes any MPG difference too :-)

The new thermostat is set to open at 87 degrees. It's stamped into the spring-end of the metal cylinder.

The muppet behind the counter at the dealer did start off by saying it would be £100 as "the plastic pin in the housing breaks". I did say that the one I took out had a metal pin, the distant sound of the penny dropping, and he got the right one off the shelf.

Saturday staff...... :-O

Edited 12 February, 2011 by RainbowFore

[nu99et18]

Think my thermostat is knackered, takes ages to warm up and doesnt go above the quater mark, only when sitting in traffic for ages and then the fan kicks in just above the quater mark.

Would anyone second the cause being the thermostat?

Thanks

Edited 1 November, 2011 by nu99et18

[KenONeill]

Think my thermostat is knackered, takes ages to warm up and doesnt go above the quater mark, only when sitting in traffic for ages and then the fan kicks in just above the quater mark.

Would anyone second the cause being the thermostat?

Thanks

The fan is operated by a thermo-switch on the radiator, so if it's kicking in, the radiator is getting up to temp ok. You can double check this by carefully feeling the top radiator hose after about 10 minutes driving. It should be hot (possibly burny burny hot; you've been warned) and hard to the squeeze.

Accordingly, I think the thermostat is probably ok, and either the gauge reads low (unusual for a Skoda), or the temperature sender is broken.

[nu99et18]

Thanks il have a look into it.

[Sonner]

nugget yours is the same as my felicia i bought 1yrs ago, my bro's fabia he bought 2yrs ago my missus fabia i bought 3months ago and my dads felly estate 1.3 i bought about 2 weeks ago.

they all needed a new thermostat, all operated in exactly the way you described... sitting below 1/4 temp until you sit in traffic then it goes up and the fan kicks in.

Nugget IMO just change the thermostat, i'm still waiting for the one i bought off ebay for £8 to change my dad's felly. but i'm sure thats the problems with ur car too

[nu99et18]

nugget yours is the same as my felicia i bought 1yrs ago, my bro's fabia he bought 2yrs ago my missus fabia i bought 3months ago and my dads felly estate 1.3 i bought about 2 weeks ago.

they all needed a new thermostat, all operated in exactly the way you described... sitting below 1/4 temp until you sit in traffic then it goes up and the fan kicks in.

Nugget IMO just change the thermostat, i'm still waiting for the one i bought off ebay for £8 to change my dad's felly. but i'm sure thats the problems with ur car too

Cheers Sonner yeah that sounds exactly the same, i may aswell change it for the sake of about 15quid

[nu99et18]

Changed the thermostat and nothing changed.....

So i changed the coolant sensor and its now running fine again, it runs much warmer than it used to aswell, it used to be between 1/4 and 1/2 way, now its always just under 1/2.

Thanks

[uma1998]

thats a good running temp to my two run at that temp one being 1.3mpi other being 1.6mpi