thermostat

[jkhania]

so i havnt had heat since i got the car. Ive decided to take the time and replace the thermostat sometime this weekend. I was looking at the how to on pelican... wish me luck :P

[b.u.ti-ful]

Good luck!

You can do it.

[spidertri]

Make sure you have some extra coolant and distilled water, if you don't already. Be prepared to bleed and bleed and bleed that cooling system, just follow the knowledge base write up on that and you should be good.

[MPWR]

Go ahead and change the thermostat (especially if the engine temp gauge indicates that it has failed). Change the water pump also.

But if it is cabin heat you want, you need to change your cabin air filters (microfilters). The ti needs two of them. You will be astounded by the difference they make.

[Recon427]

Good luck! I will be joining you in replacing the thermostat this weekend. Just waiting for the UPS guy today....then tomorrow I will have some fun

[celi1132]

Hello, I bought a 318ti with 73,000 miles in November and had very little heat. After digging around in this forum, and then working on the car, there were two causes to the heat problem. One (easy fix) the car was missing about 1/2 of a gallon of coolant. The second (sort of easy fix), a plastic piece of the wire behind the temperature control knob was broken, not allowing the vent to close all the way for maximum heat. The second problem basically lets cold air into the vent even though you may have temperature knob all the way on hot (on red). An easy way to check if this might be a problem is to turn the heater all the way on (to maximum fan temperature which I belive is 4) with the car on. Then move the temperature knob. You should be able to hear a distinct sound when the vent is fully closed (on red) to throw warm air. It's like a thump. If you then move the knob back to the cold position (blue) the vent will open and you will also hear it. You can do this several times and hear your vent opening and closing. If you don't then try to fix this first. There's a great thread somewhere on here on how to do that. If I were you, I would try fixing these two things before replacing a thermostat. On the other hand, if your coolant temperature gauge is not getting to it's middle position (indicating the coolant has warmed up) in a timely manner (usually between 5 and 10 minutes in my car) then that's a good indication it is your thermostat. I hope all this helps.

[jkhania]

oh man so i did not realize how messy this was going to be :\

good news: i got the thermostat in with the help of a friend

bad news: the housing cracked... and now im waiting for the part to come fedex.

carless

[Recon427]

How did you have the housing crack on you? Did you over tighten the bolts?

I wonder, did you use the Behr housing or a different brand?

[jkhania]

well i dont think it was tighten too much, but i didnt replace the housing, i just reused the old one which im going to assume was the original. I just bought an MTC housing though...

[Recon427]

Ah, ok....I guess old age played its part. When I did mine last weekend I bought a new set up from the beginning. Good luck with the new housing...

[jkhania]

ahhhhh this simple fix is turning into a nightmare. I ordered the wrong part. So now I have to wait a couple more days for the new part, and I have to return the old one. I wish local stores had this part

[Recon427]

That sucks, better luck this time around then. Maybe it would have been worth the time and trouble to just buy a brand new housing and thermostat from autohausaz?