Bargain!

 

It would be if it was the correct part

It appears mine is an early 2001 CRD and the part number is completely different to the later part number, though from the parts diagrams, they look the same, or very similar.

Assuming they do prove to be different, the good news for anyone with a 2002 onwards CRD is that:
1. I may have a brand new thermostat on sale for £50 plus postage
2. For future reference, the part I have is made by Behr (www.behrthermitilia.com) with a part number of C93988 and seems to be listed at around 65 euros - just a matter of getting them in this country.

 

Right - definitive information about the thermostat for the CRD.
I now have in front of me, two brand new thermostats:
1 - part number 05083288AA, to fit a 2002 onwards 2.5/2.8CRD, bought on ebay (currently available from a Latvian seller for about £65 including postage - seller is reliable as that's where I got this one from) Thermostat is made by Behr and the Behr part number is C.939.88 and includes the gasket.
2. part number 05066808AB, to fit a 2001 2.5 CRD – bought from Chrysler today for about £140, including gasket. The thermostat is also manufactured by Behr (clearly marked on the housing).
Apart from the wildly different price tags, the housings are identical. The only difference is that the later thermostat has a small right angled plastic tube screwed into on side of the body (visible in the lower middle picture below)– on the earlier thermostat, there is simply a blanking bolt screwed into the housing in place of the tube.
Otherwise they seem to be identical – if I had been able to compare these parts without buying the Chrysler part, I’d have been quite happy to buy the thermostat from ebay and replace the plastic tube with the bolt from the thermostat about to be removed.

 

After an exchange of messages with voyager_dan, we agreed that if I provided the parts (about £60 for his, and £140 for mine - for essentially the same part, mande by the same company), he'd provide the labour (with me helping as much as possible - which may have been a hinderance) and last weekend, I drove down to his place so that we could swap both thermostats out. Started with mine, andit came apart nicely - the longest time being cleaning the old gasket off the engine (not easy to access), and the most surprising part for me being how easy it was to remove the whole wiper mechanism and tray (about 10 minutes perhaps). On taking out the old thermostat, and comparing the new, it was immediately apparent that the old thermostat was stuck open as we could see much more of the brass shaft inside. All went back together nicely, and total time was around 3 hours. Ran the engine and for the first time since I got the car, I was getting very hot air inside - what a luxury - and the temp gauge went up to just below the halfway mark, and stayed there.

So then we started on Dan's car, thinking that as we now had the experience, this would be much quicker. Unfortunately, tiny design changes put an end to that idea - we ended up taking his apart less than mine, but it did mean that trying to get the new thermostat installed was much trickier (campared his old and new thermostats, and again, obvious that the old one was stuck open)- I think if we did it again, I would be inclined to use a setting gasket compound to well and truly stick the gasket to the thermostat before I even started the job, but we finally completed this one (2002 model, mine is a 2001 model) also in about 3 hours, and it warmed up nicely (once Dan had removed an airlock).

If anyone is contemplating doing this, the labour saving makes it worth doing it yourself. The thermostat is currently available on ebay from Latvia for around £60, and that's where I got Dan's from (mine only came from Chrysler because I couldn't be sure what the differences were), and you definitely need the remote clip removal tool (about £40). Otherwise, pick a warm day if possible just because it's nicer and save yourself hundreds of pounds.

Thanks to Voyager_dan (and his wife for providing refreshements) for doing the work on mine - it's now wonderful driving in cold weather yet still having hot air blasting out.

 

glad it all ok was a mission but worth the effort mine is great now guage sits at halfway and doesnt take long to heat up which is good
was nice to meet you clive was an entertaining day!!!!!!

 

Glad you've both got functioning thermostats. £60 is a great price for the stat. I'll second the requirement for a remote spring clip removal tool.....it's just not possible to do the job without one.

 

Another possible problem - I've noticed in the last couple of days a slight smell of hot coolant when I stop the car. This has only happened after I topped the expansion tank up, and accidently added a bit to much (about 1cm about the max mark on the tank). My current journey is about 7 miles each way, so the car only just reaches the correct temperature by the time I get home (lots of warm air coming out from the heater after a couple of miles though). Last night, when I got home, I checked the expansion tank - firstly the cap was stone cold (the pipes were hot though), and second, there was no pressure when I removed the cap, but the coolant level seemed more or less correct. Could the excess coolant simply have blow out through the cap (which would account for the smell) and is a faulty expansion cap likely the be the main cause, or am I looking at the strong possibility of a leak somewhere which has now shown up because the coolant is getting hot, where it never used to?

 

yes it will chuck out any excess water there should be a hose that comes off just below the cap on the side of the expansion bottle
was the water in the tank hot ,if the hoses are getting hot then it should be
could be a dodgy cap

dan

 

I had my thermostsat changes recently, and also had a slight smell of coolant for a while. The first long drive (3 hours) cured it. I put it down to spilt coolant somewhere on the engine, I guess there are lots of places it can't easily be wiped away.
Had to top up coolant a couple of times, something like a 1/4" inch and then it stayed static.

 

yep, spilt coolant could be it, but also possibly a couple of other solutions

1. I may have been an idiot and not tightened the cap on properly :-( That's now sorted
2. Noticed today that the drivers side drain from the wiper tray is leaking slightly, and dripping in the area of the thermostat, so could well be dripping onto something hot - the smell could be hot screenwash. It's going to get faster runs of about 15 miles twice a day from next week, instead of slow 7 mile journeys that it gets at the moment, so hopefully it will all be sorted out.