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Thermostat..?

mikeau

Moderator
Staff member
Ive read all about the heater being a bit useless on the defenders, but as a fiorst time owner, Im not sure how 'useless' is 'useless'.

My 110 (200tdi) takes ages to warm up (and for the heater to work), and the temp gauge never moves more than about 25% of the way off 'cold'..

Could this be the thermostat at fault?
Any other way of testing it in situ? (I guess its going to be easier to go ahead and replace it than take it out and test it...)

Where abouts is it please?
and does anybody know the part number (or temperature) of the 'stat please?

Thanks

Mike
 
I did mine recently, its dead simple and my goodness its effective. It's worth replacing it if you're testing it as they're only about £8 here. Mine now gets up to temperature after about 5 minutes driving (thats half way up the gauge, and only moves above that when I'm doing 70) and the heater is hot! I was driving mine around for a year thiking "oh these heaters are useless" before I realised it was my thermostat!

The thermostat is housed in the very front top of the engine.. You'll see 3 bolts, and the top radiator pipe going into it. You undo those 3 bolts, lift off the pipe/metal bit and you'll see the thermostat. Just pull it out, stick the new one in, stick a new gasket round and you're done. You don't even have to drain the coolant (though you will lose a bit)

Definately recommend you do it if it never goes above 25% (how cold is it there at the moment?)
 
Its not cold here (yet).. probably no worse than in the UK...

OK. Thanks for the input, I will defnitely get one and change it anyway, as it sounds like its worth doing.

Do you have a part number (or opening temperature) for the 'stat?
 
I thinks it's about 80 degrees but I'm not sure, use some gasket sealer between the joints were you open as it could leak even with the new gasket in place.
 
I got away with just using a new gasket, as long as you can get all the old gasket off you will be okay.

I'm afraid I don't know the part number, but most part places shouldn't have a problem looking it up with the year of your car.

edit:

i THINK the thermostat is ERR2803 and the gasket is ERR3682, hopefully someone will be able to confirm
 
Yep, those are the correct part numbers. Temperature for a 200TDi is 88 degrees. Did mine last year after driving around for ages with no heat. If you can't find one over there, Paddocksdo them for about £5 and they will post it out to you for the same.
 
I replaced the thermostat and the engine heats up (and the heater works!) much faster now... Its also running now with the gauge needle at about '5 past 12', whereas before it didnt move much from cold at any time.

It cost just a few quid and took about 10 minutes to do. I even used the old gasket and it's sealing fine. :)

Well worth doing!

While I was working on it, I noticed that a lot of the fins are missing from my radiator, so it might need replacing soonish as well :(

Is this a straight like-for-like replacement, or is it possible to fit a better radiator or rad/intercooler (from a Disco maybe?) while Im doing it?

If I have to replace parts, I always prefer to upgrade them whenever possible to ones that either work better or are more reliable (or are exactly the same but cheaper! :D ).

Any recommendations or advice?
 
There isn't really an uprated radiator as such, probably wouldn't be needed. However there are uprated intercooler, and in combination with a fuel pump tweak you will get more power out of your engine. Might be worth looking into that if you like upgrading, as the intercooler is bigger than standard.. That's about the depth of my knowledge I'm afraid! But aren't having working thermostats great, did that to mine recently too! :D
 
Hi

You can buy upgraded intercoolers and rads from allisport, they have a web site , just do a search on google.

Cheers

Tom
 
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