brand new rad, as stated by the owner and backup up by how it looks + parts receipt.
I pulled the T stat.....damnit..thought I had a gasket for that. Nope, and neither does ANYONE locally. Looks like tomorrow I'll have to make a 30+ min drive to the nearest dealership.
Anyway, since I can't do anything with the car, I thought I'd actually test out the thero and see what it did.
Whatever was in there opened up at 197deg and was fully open by 205ish. The new stat opened about 10 deg sooner, and was open much wider than the T stat that was in the car. Seemed like about 20-30% more across the board, cept when the temp was really hot (both were the same).
Not sure if it will solve the problem or not.
If the dealer has the gasket in stock (they damn well should....maintenance part hello?) I'll button it up tomorrow and see if it does the trick. If I've got to order the gasket I'll just get a new pump and do it all at the same time.
I'll report back tomorrow hopefully with news of it being fixed
I did get a bag of goodies today from tichser.. new antenna, gaskets, other gaskets and some misc interior bits that were broken.
Total in the car so far including shipping....$1650