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Anyone know if the Mopar thermostat (5278144AA) for the 2000-2005 Neons is the "fail open" type?

Also, is the gasket that comes as part of the thermostat all that is needed to seal the connection when reassembling the thermostat/rad cap housing to the engine?

I'm going to replace my upper rad hose & thermostat while I have the hose off next week while on holidays.

The gasket is all you need. I have no idea if it will open on fail or not.

I believe the housing is sealed via an o-ring. I think most T'stats made these days are fail open design. Not to say everything is fool proof tho.

When I watched 03NeonRT replace his, he just popped the old one out and put the new one in. The old one was put in backwards, oddly enough.

Ok guys...

In looking at both Haynes and the parts manual I don't see any mention of any type of gasket other than what is on the thermostat itself.

The parts manual shows the rad cap, thermostat housing and thermostat... and nothing else as part of the assembly.

Haynes mentions about the O-ring gasket but the wording is "Be sure to install a new rubber O-ring type gasket on the thermostat". The new thermostat comes with the O-ring gasket pre-installed.

When I queried the parts guy about any additional gaskets he said the one on the thermostat was the only one required... nothing else showed in the parts catalog.

I'm figuring the O-ring gasket around the thermostat is the only seal between the housing and engine... which falls in line with what you guys are saying.

I like to be prepared when I take stuff apart. Nothing worse than taking things apart to discover you don't have all the parts on hand for reassembly... and your "get parts" car is the one partly disassembled.

Dude yeah just pull the hose off, take the old one out and put the new one it. Then reinstall the hose.

fairly easy job should only take like 10 mins at the most.

Exactly I just installed a new radiator, upper hose, tstat, and tstat housing; the gasket around the thermostat is all you need. Very easy job to do . On a scale of 1-10, I'd rate it a 3 for difficulty.

Later
Allex

asanti wrote: Exactly I just installed a new radiator, upper hose, tstat, and tstat housing; the gasket around the thermostat is all you need. Very easy job to do . On a scale of 1-10, I'd rate it a 3 for difficulty.

Later
Allex

Great. I'm going to try getting by with the existing thermostat housing. It seems to be in reasonable shape. Just going to replace the upper hose and thermostat this time around.

Later on I may replace the lower hose and radiator... particularly if I end up moving from Ottawa, Ontario to San Antonio, Texas and bringing the Neon with me. It gets darn *hot* down there!

Thats a wee bit o move.

Yes it does get hot as all hell down there. Been there, done that, not looking forward to doing it again.

Author Message
racer12306 Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 8:15 pm Post subject:

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Thats a wee bit o move.

Yes it does get hot as all hell down there. Been there, done that, not looking forward to doing it again.


Paul56 Posted: Wed Jul 30, 2008 7:22 pm Post subject:

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asanti wrote:
Exactly I just installed a new radiator, upper hose, tstat, and tstat housing; the gasket around the thermostat is all you need. Very easy job to do . On a scale of 1-10, I'd rate it a 3 for difficulty.

Later
Allex


Great. I'm going to try getting by with the existing thermostat housing. It seems to be in reasonable shape. Just going to replace the upper hose and thermostat this time around.

When you reinstall the stock housing with the new tstat just make SURE that everything around where the housing gets bolted to the head is BONE DRY. Otherwise you will leak eventually... Don't ask me how I know!

Later
Allex