Car just sailed through MOT thought I would spend some time on little beauty.

Water temp taking age to warm up so managed to get a new thermostat off ebay, just thermostat, not complete unit.

Do I have to take unit off or can I slide it in somewhere?

you can take the pipe side off (the two bolts) and just pop the new one in. you have to be carefull that you locate the pin properly mind

Check the pin location on the cover carefully, as sometimes the pin will punch through it, giving the thermostat nothing to act against, so it will effectively stay closed.

make sure you get the right type of thermostat too because there is 2 types

Oh my god, what a job!

Old one looked OK, can only assume it was not fitted properly with pin located.

Thanks a lot.

And its working ok now?

Yes took it for drive, heater was working after a few hundred yards instead of a few hundred miles

Excellent

Thats good - think you must be one of the lucky ones.

As mentioned above, more often than not with these engines the pin locator in the housing wears rendering the stat useless... I had a 1.6 AEE in my Polo and the stat had punched through the back of the housing and demolished the water pump!!!

I keep a spare housing for mine now, and tools to change it at roadside, just in case