Thermostat MotoRad or Duralast

All I could get on short notice was a motorad...been in there over a year now and haven't had an issue. It's an OE 195 temp and seems to open around 205-210.

I found an exact copy of the factory thermostat with the baby one next to the primary the Amazon description says it’s good up to a 2000. It’s a Motorad. My temp never moves from the set point.

Big fan of the Motorad SNN-2000-195. Works great.

Just so happens my clearance thermostat is a Motorad which has the VW/Audi p/n cast on the housing!

I did notice before I recently got safety/emission test for plate renewal, i wanted to confirm the I/M readiness had ran, that at idle, the full trims were extremely rich. I'm leaning towards the lower tstat having something to do with that. I have a 195 motorad(blah) that i had just installed before the plenum work. ECT didn't break 178 degrees on a highway cruise at 95+ degrees. That seems to be right at the threshold for the current dtc.

I had issues with the MotoRad that every parts store in Canada seems to sell

issue that i noticed is that the jiggle pin is inside the bridge, compared to the standard one. i have installed the thermostat, bled the coolant, and still made sure that the jiggle pin and head gasket carve out lines up at the 12oclock position when installing; but now theres some ticking noise sometimes and i can feel my heater blowing really hot air (warmer than the usual heat).

Motorad isn't a good brand. You don't want to do the job again in a year.

I warranty my shitty duralast thermostat (I hate duralast but when I gotta get to work the next day it works in a pinch it works) now after a 5 am swap I’m good to go

I’ve changed mine once already recently (it was a duralast thermostat because I’m stupid, that might be the current issue) and it’s still acting similar and trending towards overheating at 60+ mph even with the radiator fans on high. The radiator in lines are frigid after it’s been running at mid/high temps and the radiator out lines are hot