"GT" > wrote in message
eb.com...
>I completely forgot to ask them to change the thermostat at my last
>service. The temp gauge sits around or below 70 and should be at 90. In the
>recent cold weather, it has hardly gone over 65 and it takes about 20
>minutes before proper hot air comes through to the cabin. Its always been
>low, but it seems to be getting worse. The GT I had last month was warm
>within a few minutes and blowing hot air at me after about 3 miles!
>
> Mine's a 2002, 156 Petrol 2.0 JTS. Anyone know where the thermostat is and
> how easy the job is? Should I even consider changing it myself? I'm
> proficient with the spanner and screwdriver, but I won't go near anything
> critical - ie: if its in there with the timing belt and pump etc, then I'm
> not going there! If it is inline with the cooling pipes and radiator, then
> I'll consider it.

Update:

I had time to experiment this morning...

I started the engine for 5 mins on the drive this morning and felt the pipe
coming out of the thermostat and it stayed cold. I did the school run and as
I got home the fan was just starting to blow luke warm air. I felt the pipes
again and the small pipes that cycle the coolant between the reservoir and
the engine were nicely warm, but not even close to burning my hand - they
felt like 50-60 degrees which is what the guage in the car reported. The
larger pipes between the thermostat and the radiator were still cold and the
radiator was cold, so no coolant had moved to the cooling radiator area,
meaning that the thermostat hadn't opened at all, which suggests that its
not stuck open and is possibly working OK.

Something isn't right because it didn't used to take this long to heat up (I
think!). Maybe it did and I'm just getting older and colder and noticing it
more!