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I just replaced the thermostat only in my F25 N55 after putting it off for months because of all the horror stories I read on here. I had the water pump replaced under the extended warranty at 83k miles but they wouldn't do the thermostat because it was still working. 10k miles later and after the warranty was up, the thermostat failed, stuck open.
I just wanted to post and say that doing the thermostat only is not that bad at all and took me about an hour and a half.
There are 4 hoses on the thermostat - two quick connect on the front and two traditional/worm gear hoses on the top and rear. I only removed the fan and the intake pipe on the passenger side of the engine. (Not even sure the intake pipe needed to come off, but it let me see much better what I was working with). The small quick connect hose came off easily, as did the rear large hose. The front quick connect was stuck on, and I couldn't really get to the small hose on the top. So, I just removed the other end of the large quick connect hose from the radiator and removed the thermostat with both the large quick connect and the small traditional hose still attached. There's just enough room between the water pump and the turbo/IC pipe to squeeze it out the front. Once I had it out it was easy to remove the two hoses and swap the top hose over to the new thermostat. I struggled for about 20 minutes trying to get the small quick connect hose onto the new thermostat - I just couldn't get it lined up and pushed all the way on. I was thinking that the coolant everywhere was enough lubrication, but when I finally put some oil on the hose and thermostat fitting, it popped right on effortlessly. Had I oiled it up to start, this job would have only taken about an hour. I used oil on the large quick connect as well and that one popped on the new thermostat with ease, so that's my biggest tip.
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