[Mk2] [Turbo] Rev3 Turbo Thermostat housing - how many bolts holding it on?

[Marf]

I can only see two, is there a third under the water pipe in/outlet?

[jimGTS]

Just 2.

[Marf]

Cheers Jim.

Embarking on a thermostat and coolant change tomorrow, just wanted to check before I got stuck in.

[Marf]

Success, one new thermostat installed along with fresh coolant.

My old thermostat was sticking, which in this weather meant crappy heaters and barely getting out of warmup fuelling

[raptor95GTS]

yep, same as happened to mine Nice when it's fixed though

[Marf]

Oh yes, so nice to have decent heat again, and a rock solid temperature instead of it waving about willy nilly

[jimGTS]

Good job.

[tony67]

How did you find the job? Im looking at doing my rev1 n/a stat as soon as we get rid of this snow. Access to the bottom nut looks an absolute pig. Did you do the job from above or below the car? Any tips tricks special tools needed? Its damn cold out there lately wanna get as well briefed as possible before attempting it.

[Marf]

It was awkward, even just having the two bolts, but overall was fairly straightforward.

I did it all from the top, just removed the access panel to give me some more room.

[jimGTS]

I don't know about the na, but I can tell you the lower bolt on my old rev2 turbo was a hell of alot more tricky and almost impossible to get to and undo compared to the extreme ease there is getting to a rev3-5 lower bolt.
My rev5 was easy.

[tony67]

I don't know about the na, but I can tell you the lower bolt on my old rev2 turbo was a hell of alot more tricky and almost impossible to get to and undo compared to the extreme ease there is getting to a rev3-5 lower bolt.
My rev5 was easy.

I was afraid someone was gonna say that. I've been putting this off for years. I'm pretty sure my thermostat wont fully close. Its taking over half an hour to reach full temp and even at that the needle sits at the 8 O clock position. Motorway driving sees it drop almost to 7 O clock like its shedding more heat than the engine can generate. The car idles above 1000 rpm, usually around 1200 and it drinking petrol like there's no tomorrow but I'm resolved to get this done just wanna be prepared.

[jimGTS]

If it's never reaching 1/2 way in the gauge then it's possible it could be the temp sensor on the side of the coolent matrix, where the rad cap is.
On the boot side.

This sensor sends a signal to the gauge.
Easy to change, and is a cheap part.

I had this symtoms on my rev2. Swapped in a new one and temps got up to half way, and stated there. It never went above a 1/3 before hand.

However rev5, my temp went to half way then shot down to 1/4 when giving it the beans. This pointed to thermostat. Swapped that out and solved the problem.

Maybe give both a shot and a good bleeding.

[tony67]

Cheers will give both a go. Is there a second sensor somewhere that sends information to the ecu. Might be worth going the whole hog while I'm in there cos it runs xxxx during its loooooong warm up cycle.

[jimGTS]

Once those other parts are on the car should warm up much quicker anyway. Maybe werth trying to bleed it before getting the parts just to be sure it isn't an airlock.
But for reference the one for the ecu is the one with the green connector on the other side of the matrix to the dash sensor.

[Driftlimits Performance]

rev1-2 helps if you remove the oil filter.

Rev3 easy.

rev1-2 with AC wlll need to drop the AC a little.