is this just bad luck?

[David Cullen]

ok, so got my new thermostat during the week and fitted it today, when the car came up to temperature it stayed for a bit then went past the half way mark, turned the engine off and threw what could only be described as a tantrum of epic proportions lol it was so good I wound up standing in a bucket of the oil I had just changed anywhooo, brought the thermostat home and threw it in a glass of boiling water and nada, not a budge... brand new, off the shelf and the ba**ard didn't work....
so the first one I changed was a QH and that lasted 3 months, ive sent them a mail yesterday, and now this one, which I put my hands up for stupidity, was also a QH...
is this just pure bad luck or is QH that bad? ive factored out the bad luck at this stage ....
anyone else have a bad day today?

 

[David Cullen]

sorry, meant to ask as well, could I be missing something?? I don't think so, I just find it hard to believe two stats failed on me...

 

[t-tony]

Bloody rotten bad luck mate. QH used to be good,but so did a lot of other products. The quality just doesn't seem to be there these days.

 

[lightning]

If it were me l would just fit the BMW one. It is clearly not worth the hassle for the cost saving.

 

[zedonist]

Fact is even if you buy oem, you may still get a QH part, these cars are over 10 years old, there will not be many oem supplier parts left, tooling etc will have been bought by the motor factor guys such as QH, who then do batch runs, it is possible that the two you have are from the same batch.

The opening temp on these is 96 degrees by the way, was the water actually boiling that you tested it with?

 

[Barry Gadd]

Tough luck David.
I sympathise. I've been trying to sort out my Z3 M44 since March.......
On 2 occasions mine has overheated and blown a pipe off then secondly blown a hole in the rad.
I'm pretty sure my problem was warped head so I've had it skimmed.
If you're saying your engine blew out oil I think you've either got a bad seal eg oil filter top not screwed on correctly or the head gasket has gone between a cylinder and oil channel which would mean either bad headgasket or warped head.
I'm tempted to run mine without the thermostat until I'm sure everything else is OK.I realise this is not recommended but at least it will eliminate one possible major problem.
Another possibility is to use a thermostat from an M43. A friend advised this opens at 85C. I guess the M44 has a 95C thermostat for max efficiency reasons but it's damned close to boiling (at atmospheric pressure).
Good luck.

 

[robertjones]

Tough luck David.
I sympathise. I've been trying to sort out my Z3 M44 since March.......
On 2 occasions mine has overheated and blown a pipe off then secondly blown a hole in the rad.
I'm pretty sure my problem was warped head so I've had it skimmed.
If you're saying your engine blew out oil I think you've either got a bad seal eg oil filter top not screwed on correctly or the head gasket has gone between a cylinder and oil channel which would mean either bad headgasket or warped head.
I'm tempted to run mine without the thermostat until I'm sure everything else is OK.I realise this is not recommended but at least it will eliminate one possible major problem.
Another possibility is to use a thermostat from an M43. A friend advised this opens at 85C. I guess the M44 has a 95C thermostat for max efficiency reasons but it's damned close to boiling (at atmospheric pressure).
Good luck.

Dont think mine has a thermostat in , only have to go a couple of miles in this weather and the temp guage is on the halfway mark, its then stays there however msny miles covered, including a long slow drive through Blackpool lights so will leave well alone , I think

 

[jonco]

......................... only have to go a couple of miles in this weather and the temp guage is on the halfway mark, its then stays there however msny miles covered, including a long slow drive through Blackpool lights so will leave well alone , I think

Yup that's what the stat should control at. Agree leave it alone.

 

[David Cullen]

thanks or the replies folks
@zedonist water was straight out of the just boiled kettle.
@Barry Gadd no mate, engine didn't blow out oil, thank god, one of the hoses at the back of the engine blew off due to a badly placed jubely clip by some "mechanic"
I was thinking guys, would it be possible to replace the thermostat with something from another car make like Honda or Toyota? what do you think?
I was on to QH today and got one reply but waiting on another from them, I will hound them till they sort it for me

 

[FRANKIE]

thanks or the replies folks
@zedonist water was straight out of the just boiled kettle.
@Barry Gadd no mate, engine didn't blow out oil, thank god, one of the hoses at the back of the engine blew off due to a badly placed jubely clip by some "mechanic"
I was thinking guys, would it be possible to replace the thermostat with something from another car make like Honda or Toyota? what do you think?
I was on to QH today and got one reply but waiting on another from them, I will hound them till they sort it for me

If you have another day like that one, make sure you buy a lottery ticket!

 

[FRANKIE]

Fact is even if you buy oem, you may still get a QH part, these cars are over 10 years old, there will not be many oem supplier parts left, tooling etc will have been bought by the motor factor guys such as QH, who then do batch runs, it is possible that the two you have are from the same batch.

The opening temp on these is 96 degrees by the way, was the water actually boiling that you tested it with?

Your quote: "who then do batch runs, it is possible that the two you have are from the same batch."

Would it be in the realm of possibilities that a man in the Italian BMW club might run into the same problem, look at the two thermostat boxes written in English, and reply in a broken English sentence: "Madonna, itsa da sammanabatcha!"?

 

[zedonist]

That's exactly what happens Frankie......and it's what my Italian cousin zedonistio actually wrote......

 

[David Cullen]

hahaha very sharp guys, good to see Frankie in good form at an early hour