Best place to buy a thermostat?

[JTaylor2005]

Hey all.

Getting a new thermostat for my car as well as anti-freeze for this winter

Where would be a good place to get a good thermostat from? Eurocarparts is selling them for £3ish which seems really cheap and I dont want a crappy one that will just break haha.

What are your suggestions?

Thanks, Jack

[Mattcheese31]

Ecp is fine, just get a more expensive one if u like, they usually have a few choices

[Toms306]

ECP is fine, but the rubber washer they come with is wrong.

[RetroPug]

Tried ringing your local dealer to see whether or not they still sell them?

[powerandtorque]

The last cheap thermostat I got from ECP (for a GTi-6) was garbage frankly - felt cheap and flimsy, had a noticeably smaller hole compared to OE, and worse than that, functioned worse than the original 12 year old one did with noticeable temperature spiking.

Removed it and threw it away within about 10 miles, bought a genuine Gates one and it's been perfect ever since.

Given how cheap a proper branded thermostat is, it makes little sense to me to risk a cheap part.

[JTaylor2005]

Does this one look reasonable?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PEUGEOT-306-2-...5d3d4ca715

Thanks for all the info guys

[Poodle]

Another recommendation for gates here. And another warning to stay away from euros cheap and cheerful range.

[Piggy]

Gates or simialr be fine. Make sure it comes with the gasket.

My local motor factors, without discount, was only £8 I tihnk. Which considering a online company sent me the wrong one for a fiver...I should have gone for the £8 first!

[Frosty]

I would say get 1 from Peugeot. Maybe a few extra quid but it will be the correct 1 and get a new seal from them that will be the proper seal rather than a O ring

[JTaylor2005]

I know this is a thread resurection but Where can you find gates thermostats?
Would this be good quality do you reckon?

http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/Peugeot-306-2-0-...nav=SEARCH

[powerandtorque]

Most if not all local motorfactors should be able to source Gates parts I would think

[pug306driver]

Make sure the gates product arrives in a sealed gates box ( no gaurantee that the part in the box is a gates part!! ) and part number, and has a gates ink stamp on the part, else it may be a fake like the "first gates crank pulley" I got from a trusted local motor factor.

Still no feedback from gates themselves, may be I should remind them about the "fake", or are they just not interested?

since you fitted the new gates thermostate, what temp does the gauge sit at now with normal ( sedate legal road speeds in a flatish area ( no hills ) ) driving please?

[JTaylor2005]

Cant seem to find gates ones anywhere and if there are fakes around I can't be bothered with that lol. Just gonna order an OE one in I think from Peugeot and do it right haha

[Toms306]

You trust Peugeot to get the right part...?

[JTaylor2005]

Haha they haven't failed me so far. I just changed the stat for one I had laying around from when I first got the car. It's a ecp part haha. Put it in and even with agressive driving it won't go above 80c. Even the stat has 83c printed on it to show when it should start opening. I don't understand how a car manufacture can get the simplest bit wrong haha.

I could feel the top rad hose getting warm when the gauge was just lifting off the bottom of the needle -_-

Maybe it's the temp sensor that's not reading right and it is actually getting to 90 just not reading correctly.

[JTaylor2005]

Well then. Quick update.

I replaced the thermostat that was in the car with a cheap eurocarparts one that I had laying around from when I first got the car. There was no real change and the temperature was still fluctuating between 70-80c on probably a 10 mile round trip.

I then bought a temperature sensor from eurocarparts and fitted that still with the cheap thermostat in. Took it for a spin and the temperature gauge sits anywhere between 83-85c depending on what the current driving was like (hard up a hill or flat rolling almost)

So there we have it haha. Seems like the temperature sensor was fluctuating a lot and also not reading correctly.

(photo looks like 82c ish due to the way the camera was angled)

[JTaylor2005]

Having replaced the temperature sensor I have no longer got a fluctuating idle any more and the car does seem to run actually smoother. Must be something to do with when the injection timings are and a fluctuating temperature reading or something.

[Poodle]

Ahah that's good to know, thanks for updating.

[pro_steve]

Good work. Makes sense as the idle speed is set w.r.t. water temperature. If the temperature is going up and down it's going to alter the idle too.