1995 BMW 530i T-Stat housing

BMWTECH29

MEMBER
1995 BMW 530I
233,000 MILES

Hi,

I'm getting ready to replace my cracked thermostat housing. The original one is plastic but I saw there were a few metal t-stat housings out there. My question is, which is better? Your site require 200 words so i'm just plugin in some other questions:

Also I believe my car has the stock thermostat and water pump. Given that my car is over 230K is it recommended that I also replace the thermostat along with the water pump?

1 Reply

CARADIODOC

MECHANIC
33,742 POSTS

I'd go with the metal housing, and use a little gasket sealer on both sides of the gasket.

Don't replace the thermostat unless it's causing a problem. They don't wear out based on miles or years. A new one is just as likely to fail sooner than the old one.

We don't normally replace good working parts just because of high mileage. It's silly to go through all that work if it isn't needed unless that part could cause other expensive repair bills. Mainly that applies to water pumps driven by the timing belt on an "interference" engine. You water pump isn't driven by a timing belt. All that will happen if it fails is a coolant leak or a wobbling pulley.