gates thermostat

[pug306driver]

beginning to loose faith in gates products.........th12283g2 listed for the car 306 1999/2000 2 litre hdi 8 valve turbo diesel, estate, but the thermostat does not have a bleed hole or jiggle pin??

anyone fitted one of these and had any problems??

did you drill a bleed hole in the "flange" ??

[welshpug]

most thermostats don't have this, never seen it in an o.e pug stat, it is a pug sport mod to drill two 3mm holes in them though, so I do this to any stat I have apart.

[pug306driver]

thanks  welshpug,

hows life in wrexham??

still waiting for a reply from gates ( they have not even come back over the crank pulley "problem " )....

the stat shown on europarts shows a bleed hole and jiggle pin, the one in the car from memory has a bleed hole and jiggle pin also......

so will bite the bullet and drill 2 ,  3mm holes in the flange so it can bleed air and allow the system to be filled.........

welshpug, with the 2 x 3mm holes mod, what temp does the engine now reach with normal, non hilly 60phh driving?? 80 ish or still sits at 70ish like what ours does on the old thermostate??

[welshpug]

wrexham?! never lived there!


they still open at the normal temp, the only difference i've noticed is that its much quicker to bleed all the air out and fill up.

[pug306driver]

Before I fitted the new thermostat the temp was regularly 70 degrees on normal flat roads at 60mph.

The old thermostat was defective as the rubber seal on the moving valve was deformed. it did not have a jiggle pin and bleed hole.

The new stat was fitted and the system bleed.

After some time at idle, I took it for A 12 mile test drive on the same roads at 60mph.

The temp now sits at 80 degrees looking straight on to the gauge and the engine sounds happier. the wife will be pleased as its now warmer in the car, and hopefully warmer in winter.

Whilst the system was apart I flushed the expansion tank of its much ( brown rust stains inside and black sediment, at some point the head gasket must have gone as the upper surface of the expansion tank inside, has a black oily deposit, but I have never seen oil in the coolant ) internal muck, and saw that the low coolant light ( the largish one above the temp gauge ) does work. I have never seen it work before.

Is it supposed to light when the ign is turned on as a test function??

 it does not light until the coolant level has dropped well below the lower internal wall coolant level indicator.

next job flexi brake hoses.

ps had no feedback from gates at all!!! they have just lost a customer. the thermostat in the gates box weas not made by gates, just re boxed so sod them!!!!!!

[Toms306]

Good result there then! No, the low coolant light doesn't self test. A lot have that odd oily crap in them with no HG issues, think its from people mixing coolant types rather than engine oil.