Proven Parts List - Common Parts that don't suck

Does anyone use a aftermarket thermostat or do we only use OE?

Mine is stuck open...

 

Every auto zone one ive bought has ended up getting stuck open within 5-7k miles. Oem for sure

 

i'm on vatozone tstat, going on 3 years now, and no issues as of yet. oem might crack a bit sooner to keep your temps slightly lower but, at highway cruise, i'm usually 195-200.

 

I literally just finished replacing my tstat. Good luck. That job lasted me a week. Two of the 3 bolts snapped into the block and I had to take apart the entire front end to drill them out, retap, and put helicoils in.

 

that would be why i swallowed my pride and paid a shop to change mine, haha.

 

Never did I ever think it would turn into that haha. Fuckin nightmare. Nothing was getting those bolts out. And I do mean nothing.

 

On the plus side, your fost mani looks awesome painted that color.

 

Ah yes, smirf dick blue.

 

I'm hoping to avoid that situation since the car only has something like 31k miles on it....

I'll take a chance and order the Gates thermostat off Rock Auto and report back then. It's 19 bucks and I know who Gates is rather than dealing with private label Autozone crap. I also need a master cylinder for winter beater so it works out.

 

Mine only has 50k haha. But it is notorious for being a devil. Anyone that has worked on it with me can vouch for that. She's a Hiroshima edition, she was created by the japs to get back at America for Hiroshima.

 

I felt the same way when my turbine wheel liberated its self from the turbo at 23k miles....

 

I think I'd be happy with that actually haha. Reasons to go bigger. I can honestly say out of all the work I've done on this car only 2 maybe 3 jobs went smooth.

 

Motorad 512-185 Thermostat
by Motorad
Link: http://a.co/28SeaBl

Got that one for my gen juan, not had any issues for 5k miles now.

--- Double Post Merged, Jul 13, 2017 ---

How did you break all of that? I have a rust 07 with 140k on it and mine came out easy peasy, this is blowing my mind.

 

Because I have a Hiroshima edition mazdaspeed that's how. Cars fuckin evil.

 

Dude, solid post. Thanks so much!

 

+1 Despite all the good reviews, I constantly have to warranty both front and rear endlinks at Rock Auto every 10-15k miles. I have stock sway bars and they were relubed every 3k miles. I even capped the top zerk fitting for the front endlinks since they keep breaking yet they seem to keep failing on me.

Although Rock Auto's customer is great, I lose $5 each time to get these shipped back and re-installation of the rears and relubing each endlinks is a pain in the ass.

I think OEMs are the way to go:
OEM front: $70 => 90k miles
OEM rear: $70 => 90k miles

MOOG front: $58 => 10k miles +lifetime (+$5 to ship back)
MOOG rear: $55 => 15k miles + lifetime (+$5 to ship back)

If I didn't have to pay for shipping to warranty Moog's then I think these would be the best option. I would just install these and wouldn't even bother greasing them since it's fairly tedious.

/endrant

 

I'm at 118k on my OEM, never replaced.

 

my moogs are goin strong, no clunks. seems like they're a hit/miss type of thing.

 

How many miles?

 

10-12k front, 5-7k rear