[DestroKhan]

My car overheated yesterday and since it was a pain in the *** to find out the location of the thermostat I decided to post a picture and quick DIY. If you're unsure about whether or not the thermostat needs replacing check to see if hot air comes out of the vent when you turn on the heater...if not then then there's a good change it's the thermostat and that it failed in the close position, the upper hoses will also be hard if it failed closed.

required tools: 12mm long-well socket, socket extender, new thermostat, new gasket, flat-head screwdriver (for prying)

First: You're going to need to pop the hood and let your engine cool for about an hour. Once cooled you can either drain the radiator if you have time and flush the system (recommended) or neglect it for now if you're doing this before work and you don't have the time to drain and refill.

Now, it's time to locate the thermostat, it's behind the plastic cover that you can pop off

Next, remove the two nuts that are holding the thermostat in place (the ones that were behind the plastic piece). You'll need a 12mm socket to remove the nuts.

After removing the nuts, pull on the housing and remove the thermostat (some coolant will come out) and take out the old gasket.

Upon seeing the thermostat, it was obvious that it was completely thrashed

note how it's nearly in two pieces.

Now we just need to put the new thermostat and gasket on and reconnect the housing and bolt it down.

At this point you might want to consider flushing, refilling and burping the radiator. If not just fill the reservoir and let the car run until it pulls the recently added coolant into the system

 

[darkjedi]

Nice DIY i was just about to change my thermostat , can you measure the diameter of the thermostat ?

I was thinking of putting in a lower temp thermostat , My car used to be in cooler areas now were i am living the temperature reaches over 100 degrees so i beilive my thermostat might be set to high. The needle is always stays in the middle never goes down not even when i take a long straight at high speed , but my tiburon that i bought in texas the needle does go down a bit in a straight.

mmmm......

 

[KeWLKaT]

Thanks for the writeup, but.... HOLY HELL!!!! That must be the t-stat in the worse shape i've ever seen!

 

[jayupark]

shoot, that thermo is more out of shape than I am!

 

[only1db]

Thanks for the writeup, but.... HOLY HELL!!!! That must be the t-stat in the worse shape i've ever seen!

agreed...that thing is done!! since working at the dealership and changing almost a thermostat a week...i just swap mine every 60k...end of story

 

[dmiller66]

That's crazy. I have never had one go bad and never even seen a bad one.

 

[only1db]

i guess you havent seen too many elantras. when the car overheats is probably 90% of the time a thermo sticking. just hope you notice it....or else other things start to happend like cracking the radiator (where the plastic meets the alum) and over course motor damage

 

[Wbaldwin80]

Is there a pic of a zoomed out version to show where the t-stat is in relation to other parts? When it is zoomed in to much, it is hard to figure out where I am actually looking at. Thanks.

 

[Pete03GLS]

its under your ignition coil. or at the end of the top radiator pipe. right on the side of the engine.

 

[only1db]

this might help...this is from standing at the driverside headlight...although i have a cai and that pretty much opens everything up. if you dont have an intake you have to remove the box and booyah its right there.

nevermind...found my DIY pics....here ya go!

 

[PitbullOnAcid]

thanks, nice writeup

 

[ChrisQ05GT]

Did this on mine as well, it was stuck open and the car barely got warm. Good time to do a flush as well.

 

[Massari]

Thanks for this!

I had to replace my Radiator since the accident broke the seal at the top. So I replaced radiator, Thermostat and hoses for 250$ AUD (parts). This helped heaps! I tohught why not the thermostat is only 25$ and i have everything out already

Thakns again thou! Screw going to mechanics haha

 

[casale]

Just got back from picking up a 12mm deep socket. My thermostat replacement will commence one the car cools down.

(EDIT)

Ha, a 'little' coolant will come out? Seems like ALL of mine came out. =)

 

[2k4elantra]

I am changing my radiator, thermostat, and hoses right now on a 2004 elantra. Correct me if I am wrong, but the thermostat housing is connected to the lower radiator hose, correct? In one of these pictures you can see the hoses. I am just double checking, because either my old hoses were on wrong, or everything I have read saying that the thermostat housing is attached to the upper hose is wrong.

Thanks

this might help...this is from standing at the driverside headlight...although i have a cai and that pretty much opens everything up. if you dont have an intake you have to remove the box and booyah its right there.

nevermind...found my DIY pics....here ya go!

 

[rainearzola]

Re: changing your thermostat & radiator

I was trying to change the radiator last night and can't get to one of the bolts securing the radiator on the passenger side beside the coolant reservoir. How did you get this bolt? My car is sitting in the garage until I can muster some energy after starting this last night.

 

[thedevilcried]

Re: changing your thermostat & radiator

It's important to be very careful with the gasket placement. You cant just throw it on. It seems like there is very little slop so you can get away with it, but make damn sure its centered perfectly.

 

[olidx]

Great post. I changed the thermostat on my 2005 XD2 with automatic transmission yesterday. There are more cables connected to the wire harness in front of the thermostat, going to the front of the engine that need to be disconnected. Also even though I removed the coolant, there is still a fair bit that came out when I removed the thermostat and it turned out a bit messy - nothing dramatic but took some time to clean up.