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What I did for my Reatta today: Started the thermostat replacement ordeal. An 11mm crow's foot on a 3/8" drive universal joint and extension, or a 1/4" drive 11mm socket with a 1/4" universal joint and extension are needed. It helps to unplug the vacuum hoses, being careful not to break the plastic manifold fitting (oops...). Parts needed: the thermostat, obviously, but also the following two Fel-Pro parts: Fel-Pro 35608 Engine Coolant Thermostat housing O-ring Fel-Pro 35126 Engine Coolant Thermostat Seal I found both on Amazon, neither of my local auto parts stores could source the seal. BTW, I don't understand why folks replace their OEM 195 degree thermostats with cooler units. The engines run more efficiently at higher temps, as long as they were designed to function that way. You are no more prone to overheating with a hot thermostat than you would be with a cooler thermostat, or even no thermostat at all. The ability of your car to avoid overheating is determined by the health of your radiator/fan/waterpump setup, along with the degree of corrosion buildup in the cooling passages. Let her run at design spec, those engineers had good reasons for doing it that way. As for the engineer who decided the thermostat housing retaining bolt needed to be nearly inaccessible with standard tools, that's a different story! May he/she be destined to have to access basic necessities on a regular basis with a similar level of frustration!

Today I put on the Red in the last 16 years 215,000 miles of my own on top of the 111,000 that were on it when I bought it. So I am up to 326,000 miles. My Reatta has treated me well. I am on the second engine [bought by me] and the third transmission [last one bought by me] but surprisingly other then that I am on the 4th rack and pinion it has been pretty straight forward on repairs. Brake pads/rotors, wheel bearings, tie rods, ball joints, struts, fuel filters, radiators, water pumps, harmonic balancer/ crank sensor and ABS sensor leads. But the "silver boxes" have served me well as have the IPC and CRT. Interior I did the dash [twice], seats [once] carpet, visors, ceiling head liner, and drivers inner door panel. It also has been painted with an after market sunroof installed. Total cost invested with purchase price? Less then $25,000. I spent over $65,000 on cars for my wife in the same time frame and had repairs and replacement parts in her car bringing the total even higher. I know there are more smaller parts I bought for the Red, but overall I am very happy with my car and glad I bought a Reatta and hope it continues to serve me well.