1.4 CAXC thermostat body

[George Kost]

Hello all,
I have a 1.4 CAXC 2010 model.
I am already leaking a tiny amount of coolant at the thermostats and probably one of them is stuck open because it takes forever to reach 90oC although it stays at 90 all the time.

After having a chat with my mechanic (independent workshop) he proposed to only use genuine parts because most aftermarket tend to leak fast.
But the original part is 250€ which is a lot just for a plastic housing and two thermostats. Aftermarket ones go for much less.

So my question is if anyone has good experience with any aftermarket part that worked great or trust my mechanic and go for the genuine?

This is the part 03C121111T

Best regards,
George

 

[norris_309]

Probably not what you want to hear (and may be different for your particular model) but on the older vag cars I've found the general consensus is to not waste your time & money on aftermarket thermostats & just go with Genuine.
I've never tried aftermarket because of this... didn't fancy doing/ paying for the job twice.
It sounds an expensive part that though!... what is the labour charge for fitting?
Frustrating as my old 2004 a4 tdi genuine thermostat was about £25 i think & took minutes to swap!... my 2010 a3, from watching youtube vids seems it's a major job to replace!

Have you tried the parts request link on this site? if not, it might be worth a shot, maybe save a couple of quid

 

[George Kost]

Actually the price is from the VW dealership here in Greece.
So I doubt that any other price including shipping would be cheaper.

The labor will be somewhere between 50 to 100€ plus the new coolant.

Thanks for the input norris! Probably I am going for genuine...

 

[samisnake]

Why you need the whole housing? Is it cracked? Pretty sure you can buy just the individual thermostats from the dealer, there are 2 on the caxc, and it'll be a lot less than 250.
As for aftermarket, I'd get a mahle behr, who probably made the original one.

On the caxc, changing the thermostat is an easy job. Might need to remove the battery, but once you do you have full access.

 

[George Kost]

Why you need the whole housing? Is it cracked? Pretty sure you can buy just the individual thermostats from the dealer, there are 2 on the caxc, and it'll be a lot less than 250.
As for aftermarket, I'd get a mahle behr, who probably made the original one.

On the caxc, changing the thermostat is an easy job. Might need to remove the battery, but once you do you have full access.

Yeah the housing is leaking. Not sure if it is cracked, or if is it a plastic gasket that exists underneath or if it has deformed over the years and now not sitting correctly.
For sure the battery must be removed and maybe the air filter box but ok easy task.
I want to check with a flashlight and if I can see any cracks because as you know many times the mechanics just replace the full part and go to the next car. That is why actually my mechanic just told me to replace the hole body.