Adam I've bought that part at NAPA and at O'Reilly's. It's about $20 both those places, and $30 at the dealer. I'm not trying to pile on you Adam, but it doesn't make a lot of sense to think that $5-$6 is the right price when the first one at that price didn't work.

 

No please tell me Id much rather get advice from you all. I just wish I got this advice first before I replaced the thermostat like others said to do.

I'll have to find a NAPA or O'Reily's because Auto Zone just had a generic one when I had them read the CEL code a month ago.

It is a simple part so thats why I went with the $6 one, not much to it really. Who knows I could of just gotten a bad one.

 

Here's the OEM part # Mfg Part#059919501AKT2, found on ECS's website. I'll see what I can find online if not I'll call around and see who carry's it around me.

Almost nothing comes up when that number is typed in so it looks like a store or dealer it is. ECS does sell 2 others that are $6 & $8 which is probably the one that I ordered from eBay. I am tempted to try another cheaper one because I feel I just got a faulty sensor but then if it doesn't work I've wasted $10+ on cheap sensors.

 

As the others have said, just because it lists the Audi part number doesn't mean that it was made by Audi. My advice: just buy the real sensor and be done with it. The failure rate of the cheap knock off parts is very high, so even if your first one wasn't DOA, you'd be replacing it again very soon.

Edit: Thought I would post the link to the sensor at Europa. http://www.europaparts.com/coolant-t...59919501a.html A little cheaper than the dealer.

 

With things like cooling systems and other essential parts, even though it's expensive I try to stick to genuine for peace of mind and hopefully so things don't f*ck up. With non-essential type things maybe like suspension bushes or something, I can handle going a cheap non-genuine.

 

Nice find Bshusted!

 

Awesome thank you all of you. I'll get the correct part and see what happens.


Ordered from europaparts. $15.75 shipped. I'll try and return the faulty one to eBay, they want me to pay for shipping though so we'll see.

 

So that I'm prepared for when the CTS comes tomorrow what is the best way to do it so I don't lose coolant like I did last time?

Make sure the car is completely cool, release any pressure by opening the overflow tank and then closing it, right? Anything else?

 

So any update? what happened? did installing OEM CTS fix the issue?

 

Replacedast night in about 10 minutes, minimum coolant loss this time. Haven't drove the car yet to see if the problem is fixed. Will report back once I get some results.