Thermostat cost to replace

Sinbad said:
Thermostats normally fail open, not closed.
So here the problem is most likely not the t'stat. More likely water pump, blocked radiator, or blown head gasket.
The latter is most likely to have happened ANYWAY, because of the overheating.

Take it somewhere that knows what they're doing.
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This

My understanding is that you can drive without a thermostat. Its unlikely the thermostat was the root cause.

But replace in anycase.
 
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Haha you believe their marketing? That car manufacturers would use parts that are designed to fail in a catastrophic way?

PS about driving with the thermostat removed - may be ok in some cars but not all. Many vw engines (definitely older ones like in Citi Golfs) use the thermostat to direct water to the radiator. If the thermostat is not installed the bulk of the water goes direct back to the engine block.
 
:wtf:

I have built/serviced many cars,many makes. I have seen the thermostats and have seen those that have failed closed.

BTW, if you are so sure, post which car/model has a OEM fitted 'fail open' thermostat.
 
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I recently had one replaced on my 2001 Corolla. Old one is from original.
It stuck open. Just saying.
Maybe there's other manufacturers that don't use the fail safe ones.
 
Three of my failed thermostats failed open. Merc and two seats.
 
I've had one fail closed, and one fail open. I would not rely on a thermostat failing open, especially in an older car.
 
The level of misinformation in this thread is enough to win the Miss Information pageant!

On Opels, your Corsa included, the cambelt needs to come off to replace the thermostat. I have done this twice on a 16v 1.6 Astra so the quote you got is very reasonable. I would also do the waterpump and cambelt at the same time since labour is the biggest cost factor of this exercise.

If you are doing the thermostat, waterpump, cambelt and the head you could pay as much as R10k.
 
So in conclusion it cost 5.1k to fix. But this was including replacing the radiator which was leaking - apparently not possible to fix. Car is fine now though and no other damage it seems. She took it to Williams Hunt after quoting around. Labour was 3 hours.

On this particular day that the car overheated she was driving to CBD and back. However she works less than 10km from home, and I do all the driving for us on weekends etc... in my car, so I guess it's possible the problem was there and not noticed before.

@ Roux, lol :D
 
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R5.1k and all they did was replace the thermostat and radiator?!?! That sounds more than a bit excessive in my opinion.

Fixing a radiator is possible, depending on where the damage is and how bad it is.
 
Rouxenator said:
The level of misinformation in this thread is enough to win the Miss Information pageant!

On Opels, your Corsa included, the cambelt needs to come off to replace the thermostat. I have done this twice on a 16v 1.6 Astra so the quote you got is very reasonable. I would also do the waterpump and cambelt at the same time since labour is the biggest cost factor of this exercise.

If you are doing the thermostat, waterpump, cambelt and the head you could pay as much as R10k.
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Another reason not to buy an Opel (tick)
 
If they did not do anything other than replace the thermostat and radiator then the amount you paid is insane. I replaced my old Corsa's radiator two years ago for R900 with labour (was too lazy to do it myself and did not really have the time). The thermostat ahouldn't be that hard to do, Corsa's are generally easy to work on yourself.

Mechanic's will always try to screw you over. I had an idling problem (not related to the idle control valve). They wanted to replace muiple things totalling R4000. I ended up taking an entire Saturday to investigate, turned out to be the throttle position sensor, R300 and half an hour later car was fixed.
 
Pitbull said:
Another reason not to buy an Opel (tick)
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Actually it is like that on most modern cars how ever I know from first hand experience what the procedure is on GM Family 1 Ecotec units.
Fury05 said:
The thermostat ahouldn't be that hard to do, Corsa's are generally easy to work on yourself.
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So clearly you have never done it before then.
 
Rouxenator said:
Actually it is like that on most modern cars how ever I know from first hand experience what the procedure is on GM Family 1 Ecotec units.

So clearly you have never done it before then.
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Nope never done it myself. Taking the cambelt off on those Corsa's is not as bad as you are making out to be, there is alot of space in the engine bay.
 
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