"Are you sure about the Wahler's, Fitz?"

Unfortunately, I have a 1 gallon pail of broken Wahler thermostats, and some were date-coded only two years prior to the time that I removed it after it failed on a customer. However, I have removed two in the past couple years that are Wahler and stamped "Volvo" (a dealer part) and they were still functional upon removal. However, it seems that the aftermarket supply of Wahlers (the ones that go to indy mechanics and the DIY'ers) are junk. I am not willing to risk my own car, or one that I'm working on with the chance that it will overheat and fail. -and the last time I bought a Wahler thermostat from the dealership, it was in the $17 price range. Aftermarket prices are half of that (for both Wahler and Caloristat)

I am guilty of installing Wahlers, but it's a mistake I'll not repeat again soon. However, in the last couple years I've had a few Caloristats that were locked up tight (came that way out of the box), and now I test all of them in a pan of water on the stove before installing them. But, I've pulled Caloristats from customer's cars that were installed on the assembly line and worked flawlessly for 19 years. That's a pretty good reputation and I'll be sticking with them for now.

God bless,
Fitz Fitzgerald.


--
'87 Blue 240 Wagon, 285k miles.