Cheap Chinesse parts are cheap because there made to look like the original bits but without any QC or testing, you get what you pay for.

OEM for major parts.

Ummmm ok.

Thanks for adding precisely nothing and looking a bit of a berk for saying how good OEM parts are when they're clearly crap in this case.

Thanks for welcoming my input so warmly.

if you look on EBay these items are available from £17.50 to £36 for the same item, all seem to be plastic type fittings, but was yours OEM or aftermarket, I was saying if after market that could be the reason for its faluire

Have a Nice Day

And you'd be wrong, all the failed ones are OEM.......

Hey, jenkineo/306maxi -
When you replaced your thermostats what did you use as a gasket? Does a new gasket come in the kit from S4P, maxi? Or did you use a tube of sealant instead of a gasket?

The aftermarket one from S4P came with a rubber seal. There was no gasket as such, just a rubber o ring.

Same thing happened to me. 2011 Panda 1.2, the black plastic connector for the heater hose sheared completely off the thermostat housing with no warning and the overheat red light came on.

I plugged the hole in the housing at the roadside and took the radiator cap off to stop pressure building up. With a liter of water that I carry, I limped five miles to the nearest petrol station, filled it up and got home another ten miles without overheating.

Mr Auto, the french website, is another possible place to get the replacement housing from. It is cheaper and quicker than the shop4parts website for delivery here in Ireland - 17 to 22 UK pounds depending on make.

Nice to see Maxi and his lovely comments are still "live" albeit old. Such venom from someone obviously very knowledgeable.

typecastboy said:

Nice to see Maxi and his lovely comments are still "live" albeit old. Such venom from someone obviously very knowledgeable.

Click to expand...

Perhaps people who are knowledgeable get tired and annoyed when people are insistent that their car is painted in a non-existent solid white colour and that you can't change the DRL bulb on a 500 without jacking it up and removing the wheel.

It's stupid stuff like this which made me leave the forum. I know more than the vast majority of people on here and it's their loss, not mine. I'm far happier leaving you to do things your way even if they're wrong. The fact that the 500 forum is not as popular as it once we're bears this out.

Hiya, the rubber ring is the seal.

There is no gasket.

Hi, some aftermarket parts have the plastic fitting, some have metal.

The Gates part has metal.

I got one from Euro Car Parts for about £16 and it looked higher quality than what was on there.

Probably doesn't help much, but hey, same happened to me.

Well this has happened to my lads punto in Birmingham airport drop off area of all places!!
Anyway fitted an aftermarket jobbie to day and the sensor connector wouldn't fit right and no water was circulating round the rad wen the engine was warmed up,
So went and m
Bought another from a different motor factors and swapped them sensor connector fitted fine topped up and bleed rad and warmed engine up but I still have no water circulating the rad its stone cold although the temperature gauge is showing over halfway on the gauge.

Could I be unlucky enough to buy two duff thermostat housings or have I done not done something right?

306maxi said:

Perhaps people who are knowledgeable get tired and annoyed when people are insistent that their car is painted in a non-existent solid white colour and that you can't change the DRL bulb on a 500 without jacking it up and removing the wheel.

It's stupid stuff like this which made me leave the forum. I know more than the vast majority of people on here and it's their loss, not mine. I'm far happier leaving you to do things your way even if they're wrong. The fact that the 500 forum is not as popular as it once we're bears this out.

Click to expand...

And yet the 500 sub forum consistently has more viewers than any other sub forum ?

Richyg said:

Well this has happened to my lads punto in Birmingham airport drop off area of all places!!
Anyway fitted an aftermarket jobbie to day and the sensor connector wouldn't fit right and no water was circulating round the rad wen the engine was warmed up,
So went and m
Bought another from a different motor factors and swapped them sensor connector fitted fine topped up and bleed rad and warmed engine up but I still have no water circulating the rad its stone cold although the temperature gauge is showing over halfway on the gauge.

Could I be unlucky enough to buy two duff thermostat housings or have I done not done something right?

Click to expand...

Hi, and welcome,
does sound strange, unlikely to be an airlock,
did you keep the system "sealed"..?? cap left on..!!

I'll try and link to the other threads detailing the swap,
https://www.fiatforum.com/500/422498-slow-coolant-loss-3.html
https://www.fiatforum.com/500/440230-heads-up-about-thermostat-heater-hose.html


Charlie

alexGS may well remember doing his..!!

Richyg said:

Well this has happened to my lads punto in Birmingham airport drop off area of all places!!
Anyway fitted an aftermarket jobbie to day and the sensor connector wouldn't fit right and no water was circulating round the rad wen the engine was warmed up,
So went and m
Bought another from a different motor factors and swapped them sensor connector fitted fine topped up and bleed rad and warmed engine up but I still have no water circulating the rad its stone cold although the temperature gauge is showing over halfway on the gauge.

Could I be unlucky enough to buy two duff thermostat housings or have I done not done something right?

Click to expand...

What were the symptoms of the failure? I'd suspect that the water pump to be honest.

werdna said:

And yet the 500 sub forum consistently has more viewers than any other sub forum ?

Click to expand...

Because the 500 is Fiat's best seller over the last 8 or 9 years so there are almost certainly more 500s on the road than any other Fiat model.

The 500 forum used to be far far more popular previously though.

306maxi said:

The 500 forum used to be far far more popular previously though.

Click to expand...

Just like me! I guess its the same thing with Fiat too- old age!

306maxi said:

The 500 forum used to be far far more popular previously though.

Click to expand...

Sadly that's true of forums in general - a byproduct of the popularity of social media.

I'd say that whilst the volume of posts may have gone down, their quality has improved and our track record of helping folks with real world problems gets better all the time.

I'm sure the forum has saved people many thousands of pounds over the years, and long may it continue to do so.

That's down to all those who give their time freely and share their expertise without expectation of any reward save for knowing they've helped a fellow Fiat owner.