Thermostat Housing

I replaced the thermostat on my Wife's 2010 Aveo5 LT. Easy job, hardest thing was getting to the radiator drain, till I was done! Got the new on in, hoses hooked up and coolant added. Started up, let it warm up then drive to get gas. I check under the hood before coming home, luckily I was only a mile from home, the housing it mounts to is cracked! I don't know what to do now. I took tomorrow off and am looking to get the housing and hopefully a water pump. No such thing as a simple job I guess.

That stinks. Sorry to hear your woes!

Just a heads-up to anyone else doing this fix. Dorman makes an aluminum replacement that includes the thermostat. For my model, 2010 Aveo5 LT it's part number 902-033. The drain plug for the radiator is on the driver's side of the car, 13mm hex head. While I'm not a fan of the plastic manifold for 221 degree thermostat, the radiator drain actually comes out the bottom of the mount, making it handy to stick a container under.

wow i just replaced my thermostat today and the housing broke. went to autozone and got a duralast housing. waaaay sturdier. cost me 30$ usd. just find the part and replace it. the only hard part are the clamps on the radiator hoses

That's about what I spent for the thermostat, it's a cheap and easy fix. The manifold with the heater core hoses and water pump piping that it mounts to is plastic though, that's what cracked on my car. While not the best time, I'm glad it did though as it showed the car has run low on coolant recently, the plastic had some melting from steam in the head. I think it showed up before any damage has been done but keeping my fingers crossed. If you look up the Dorman part, you'll see what I mean. I am really surprised it's plastic given the operating temp for the engine is 221 degrees.

Sparky34kv, thanks a lot, this is a useful info, indeed the drain plug for the radiator on the driver side for my 2011 LT. Also, used socket 13mm to just loose it. For the thermostat housing, it seems that the part you mentioned is for Cruze and Sonic when I tried to order it off ebay but it looks identical to the original part that I have. Unfortunately, my thermostat housing broke after replacing the thermostat.

About a month ago I replaced my thermostat housing. Now, looks like a new problem as anti freeze seems to be coming from this module. Anything, I may have missed, as stated the project is really straight forward. Guess its removal will say it all.

Just to update, I failed to remove the old gasket and thus had two. Something, I've done before only with oil filter.. Geesh...:banghead: