E36/M44 Thermostat Replacement

[CaptainWho]

Howdy, folks,

Well, this isn't for an IT car, just my daily driver, but I hope you will help anyway. :-) I recently bought a used '96 318ti. The recent cold snap here in Atlanta has shown the thermostat needs replacing (it's stuck wide open). I got the replacement unit, and started looking for installation instructions (I'm not used to this 'built into the housing' thing). All of the instructions I can find indicate that the fan and fan shroud have to be removed to replace the thermostat. For a car maker renowned for making things easy to work on, this sounds just completely wrong. So, do I really have to take out the fan and shroud to replace the t-stat or is there a shortcut? Like maybe removing some fan blades or something?

[nlevine]

If the fan on the 318ti is like the fan on the Z3 1.9, the blades do not separate.. It's really not that big a deal to pull the fan and the shroud. You'll be amazed at how much space there is to work in the engine bay with the fan and shroud out of the way.. If I remember correctly, I pulled the fan and fan clutch as one unit - just had to get to right-sized wrench..

-noam

[Doc Bro]

Remember the threads are reverse.

R

[CaptainWho]

Well, I replaced the thermostat this evening. All I can say is wow! The manuals and instructions are way overblown, at least for the '96 (E36) 318ti (M44 engine). Or maybe they're just really generic, and it really is that big a PITA on some of the cars the manuals cover. After some test fitting and measuring, it turned out I didn't need to remove anything, nothing, nada, nichts. Well, except for some coolant and the t-stat itself. One bolt is a mild pain if you haven't removed the fan and shroud, but that's it. Thirty minutes, including self-inflicted flailing around.