Thermostat MISHIMOTO or AISIN

It's a very easy thermostat to replace, I just did it a couple days ago on a 2008 Hyundai Sante Fe with the big 3.3l V6. The gasket comes with the OE Aisin thermostat, too, making it even easier.

I have a mishimoto thermostat with their radiator setup. It does kick on the fans on at a lower temp range than when the stock one would which is good. I had issues running hot on the stock rad/thermostat and haven't had any issues since.

I replaced the thermostat with a Mishimoto thermostat and vaccume filled the coolant. I did a 30 min test drive in the 95+ weather with the AC cranked. Never went past the 7th dot.

The OEM Aisin thermostat opens at 185, staying completely closed until 180 where it can open up partially allowing proper circulation and proper temperature control. The engineers at Nissan designed this cooling system to function in a certain way at very specific temps. ONLY USE THE AISIN 185 OEM thermostat in these trucks.

I got a bad mishimoto thermostat with similar results.

I bought and installed a Mishimoto thermostat that activates at 68°C, while my vehicle OEM (Original factory) thermostat activates at 88°C and fully opens at 100°C. With the Mishimoto thermostat (68°C), the coolant temperature basically stays 71 ~ 74°C when driving, from OBDII reading. Short Term Fuel Trim was OK, between -10% and +10%. I checked the spark plugs after one week, they were fine.

However, after three weeks (last Saturday to be precise), the Check Engine Light was on when I started the vehicle, and OBDII gave Code P0128. I searched the code online and got: coolant temperature fails to reach the proper operating temperature, or Coolant Temperature Below Thermostat Regulating Temperature. My thinking was the engine finally realized that the temperature was below the operating temperature, due to the Mishimoto thermostat.