Thermostat housing

Replaced my thermostat on my 1.8 gti cabby and now it won't close up properly so water leaks out slightly.  On the housing (plastic) should there be a rubber o ring or as this come from there old thermostat as its this rubber ring that seems to stop it closing up tight however closes up fine with o ring without any thermostat

Hi,
I'm sure it's not this, but I assume your new thermostat came with o-ring already supplied??

Yes new one had one and one came out with old one but there's another one attached to the housing???

Wilko13 said

Yes new one had one and one came out with old one but there's another one attached to the housing???

Again, ruling out the obvious here.
When I replaced a previous housing (on front of block) the previous gasket had become so perished it has almost forged itself into the plastic housing, I had to scrape it out which then allowed the two parts to seal nicely.

NB: It was nigh on impossible to notice the gasket had forged itself into the gap, I only spotted it by chance.

Thoughts?

Oh right that might be it then as there's no gasket which I thought was odd so it may have done the same and sort of gone ring shaped. I was fairly stuck would move. So might be worth scraping it off

if your thermostat housing is plastic bin it and buy a new one. it'll probably be too warped to seal properly

All plastic thermostat housing should be banded

Buy a metal one youll only have to do it once

Done some ex searching but where can you get the metal ones from

early mk1 golfs, so not easy to find unfortunatly