2012 Volkswagen CC 2.0 TSI Engine: Thermostat Replacement 

I would probably go ahead and change both water pump and thermostat

@@thelitos07 I was thinking the same. 09 Passat has a cracked thermostat housing. Most likely have mechanic change pump at same time

Did you ever replace your thermostat? I got the same issue as you. My car came from Florida last year so I think the thermostat is original because they don’t use there heat as much as we do in ny

@@tonybristol9132 well thankfully my heat works just fine still. Good luck to you up there, I can't imagine not having heat in NY. Short answer, I have not changed mine yet. I gave an attempt to this guide but I found that I may just need to pull the whole water pump out to get the thermostat. I had to remove all bolts from water pump to get some wiggle room, but still gave me a hard time. You may have better luck

I’m changing mine tomorrow will let you know if it fixed the error. Mine started leaking which made me finally give up and change it.

@@DavidcGaribay aw man. Good luck!

@@thelitos07 yeah, it can still be a tight spot. If you change the water pump, replace all the gaskets. I reused the transmission cooler pipe gasket and it later developed a leak (video on that coming).

It would not fit. I tried numerous different universal fittings but they were all too tight. I even jt tried a long fallen wrench. But you found something that fits, throw it up on the comments. It would be great to not even have to loosten the water pump.

Wiiilld. You'd expect to hear head gasket if you were blowing white smoke out the back

@@thelitos07 Exactly! Overheating is not the ONLY symptom of a bad head gasket. Thank goodness that I've found an independent european car shop that seems to know what they're doing for 1/2 the dealer cost!

Could be any number of things. Never had an issue with that, sorry.

The thermostat that I used fit correctly. It is a little tricky getting it in so it slides in all the way. If not, the housing will not seal correctly. I hope you get it figured out!

I don't remember, sorry.

That sounds like the same area as the water pump. It could be the water pump gasket or the transmission cooler pipe which also went bad on mine. I will be posting the video from that soon as well. That was an easier fix because it was more accessible.

Check the temperature of your radiator. If its cold, than it is more than likely a bad thermostat.

Need to test the pressure of the coolant. Could unfortunately also be the intake/head venting gas into the coolant passages.

The fan is controlled by the computer, I think you would need a computer to hook up to reprogram the engine management system.

I would look underneath on the front side of the engine to see if there is evidence of a leak. A failed head gasket will also consume coolant.

Head gasket or oil cooler.

It was a 15mm wobblehead allen

Mine did the same thing for months until the thermostat finally quit completely. p2181 and no overheat until one day the thermostat stuck closed and caused the overheat. Either way, that code is telling you the thermostat is not operating within Volkswagens parameters.

@@bryanfagerstrom4664 thanks bud could you tell me which model thermostat is the one you purchased

Never had any issues with the housing leaking. Is yours leaking?

@@bryanfagerstrom4664 so turned out to be water pump leak, and previous mechanic inserted a wrong thermostat and thermostat housing.😅, it was an easier fix buying the full assembly of the pump.

The longer end (shaft) of the thermostat goes into the outside housing. Be careful: both shaft ends of the thermostat have a hole that they must fit into. It's quite easy to mis-install the thermostat and still be able to bolt down the cover.

It's only 4 screws on each corner. Very easy

I did not video that, sorry.

In the video I explain how narrowed down the thermostat, it could be any number of things: head gasket, thermostat, bad water pump, broken water pump belt, or even a bad radiator.

9min 34 sec

It was prob an hour. But I have experience working on the car. Might take longer.

The temperature sensor is on the water pump housing. It’s a pain to get to. Passenger side of the water pump. Located under the intake behind the throttle body.

Yes it did. Also, no more P2181 code.

He’s not wrong ^^ 200$ is better thoooo

That’s vw for ya.