Thermostat Gates or Wahler

I’ve got the gates 180, 5 years strong no issues

Replaced the new Mahle/Behr one with a new Wahler one, and now it runs at 97° under low load and 80° under high load, as it should, and seems to be fine.

I replaced the thermostat myself. It’s in a pretty bad place, hidden under the intake manifold. It took me about 3 hours to get the job done, had to use a mirror to see the screws. Mine was stuck open so the car in winter time wouldn’t even reach 190 F. I bought an OEM Wahler 07K121113B thermostat from Amazon for like 30$, so far has been working great.

Man, you just get the thermostat itself. Nothing more. Something like that was for 2008 Rabbit (2.5 I-5). Mine car had exactly same symptoms. It would reach 70 C and maybe at some point 80, but had tendency to stay cool (below 80) when driving. I know thermostat opens at 80 C, so anything below 80 is not quite right.

I got the GATES 34710 Thermostat. I haven't had any problems since replacing it 3 years ago.

Forgot to add I test drove her last night to the store, holy $hit it runs like a beast, if I had to guess it feels like it got 20hp back and idles smooth as a new mk7 no shaking no cel lights just butter, it accelerates much smoother and faster then I ever had it. Such a difference it was amaze balls.

we warrantied a Gates thermostat on a pentastar 3.6L three fkn times because the guy said it kept overheating going up hills. Originally replaced for P0128 thermostat code. Then we put an oem part in and it’s never overheated since.

I had two Wahlers and they leaked as soon as I fitted them. In exactly the way you described.

I got the wahler one in 2019, that would explain the really slow leak I have.

My Wahler thermostat starts to leak after 4 years. It's not a big leak (only a cup a month) but I'd swap it asap.