Cool runnings - more thermostat problems

[Milford Cubicle]

So my new car was running cold and taking ages to heat up, replaced the 'stat but coolant was pissing out of the housing - took it off and found a lovely crack in it.

 

Car is a 1994 Primera 2.0D, which will surely be great for illegal minicabbing and the like - IZ IT SHITE YET?

[Richard]

You can repair that with adhesive and a jubilee clip around the perimeter. Adhesive alone would probably do it but the clip would give a bit of security.

[Milford Cubicle]

I'd be a bit worried to try it, will it hold? By adhesive do you mean liquid metal-type stuff?

[Richard]

That sort of thing. I've had a camshaft bearing stuck together with that stuff and it held. The cam bearing was braced with a bar over the top.On your thermostat a jubilee clip teased into shape would provide the mechanical strength while the liquid metal would provide the seal. It would just have to be tight enough to be secure without distorting or breaking the housing.Obviously it would be better and easier if you could lay your hands on a replacement housing but there's no reason why that bodge can't last the life of the car.

[Milford Cubicle]

Ta for the help, I'll give it a go.

[Spottedlaurel]

I had one of those break on my Starlet. In the end I got one from the Toyota dealer, it was something piffling like £12 so not worth the aggro and risk of bodging it or finding a secondhand one. No harm in asking a Nissan dealer?

[Milford Cubicle]

Nissan wanted £52 for a new one, no ta! I bodged it up with metal filler-type stuff and it seems to be doing the trick.No more waiting hours for the engine to warm through either. Lovely.

[Milford Cubicle]

Metal filler was a big fail! It just crumbled to bits after about half an hour of being subjected to hot anti-freeze.Got a used housing from Nissan 1st via The Parts Gateway, super service!Anyway, I've put a new thermostat in, as well as the new housing and sealed it up with liquid gasket after a few failed attempts trying to modify the ever so slightly mis-sized gasket which came with the thermostat and it's back to its old self, running cool at about 1/8th of the gauge and only reaching normal temperature when idling. What have I done wrong now?Strangely when there was a bit of water leaking out of the thermostat housing the temperature got to normal pretty quickly, even when cruising.

[r.welfare]

Did you test the new thermostat in a pan of water on your cooker hob first? It's not unknown for new ones to be knackered.Not sure what else could be wrong, but I'd check for air locks and also feel the rad all over, quite possible it could be silted up but then you'd expect it to run hot. Having said that my 405 saloon runs at 80C all day long and only creeps up to 90C when it has been idling for about a century; that's had a new thermostat and rad recently.

[Milford Cubicle]

Thermostat is OK, even the old one (which I attempted to replace because of the mysterious cool running) passed the hot water test. Baffling!