Hi everyone! New to this site. And actually to owning a car generally, so I do humbly apologise if any of my posts come across as naive at all! Have been reading up a lot lately as really useful information on here, so thanks so far for help you didn't even know you were giving.

I've got a S reg Felicia 1.3 MPi (from after the facelift). My mom gave it me as my first car last year, it has only just clocked 50000, and I didn't pay a penny for it, bless her.

I have the common problem of heat sensor etc, I think.

Temp gauge doesn't go above 75 deg....Ever. Seems to be running quite rich. On the (very) odd occasion I stall it, it takes about 5 minutes to re-start. Which, at a traffic light in rush hour last week, I discovered was not something I want to happen again!

Also, the radiator fan never seems to come on. When my Mom used to drive it, the fan would stay on after the car was parked and turned off, but never happens now.

I've ordered from Jorily a new temp sensor with clip and o ring, along with a new fan switch for the radiator.

I took the old temp sensor out when cold, and noticed that I can see springs etc through the murk of the coolant in there.

Does this mean that the 'stat has failed too? If so, is the insert that Jorily sell a good idea? Is there a lot of work in changing this over? - i.e. would you recommend ordering this and then asking a decent garage to change it over - I am a little bit green with maintenance, certainly don't want to DIY and mess up if there's a lot to go wrong! How much work would it be if I take it to a garage - arm and a leg? What level of urgency am I looking at to get this all fixed?

Cheers, Tom

changing the thermostat isn't to hard a job, and i can imagine a garage charging a fair amount. All you have to do is drain the coolant (remove 1 bolt on the coolant pipe which passes down the left hand side of the engine as you look from the front. Then remove the cap on the coolant tank and the system will start once that's finished draining remove the coolant pipes which are attached to the thermostat. Then I think it's just 3 bolts to remove it. Fit the new one put the drain bolt back in then fill it up gradually with nice new coolant. Job done.

Don't bother to drain the coolant, just undo the housing, and then the amount that is needed to do the job will drain out, nothing more. You only need to undo the jubilee clips for the hoses that go to the housing itself (not on the engine side, just the bit that you will be replacing) and the three 8mm head bolts that hold the two halves together. Replace the thermostat, and then refill the coolant as needed (I usually remove the temp sender to do this as it leaves the least air in the system). It's a 15 minute job, if that (probably more like 5!). It would be extremely unlikely to go wrong, to say the least. I'd imagine a garage would charge an hour's labour.