I have a 54 plate and it needs a new one of these. The Ford garage has one but I can’t get over there by the time they close. Halfords have a Circoli one: Is this likely to be any good?

Just get it – they are std aftermarket housing – very common problem to fix – hence Halfords in stock.

That’s kinda what I thought, but at £40 the part is significantly cheaper than Ford. I appreciate that manufacturer parts are usually expensive, but I just begs the question: Is the Halfords part poor quality and likely to fail?

The Ford one only lasted 10 years – tbh plastic thermostat housings are a bit rubbish – my brother had an automatic Mondeo – for which the specific plastic housing was completely unavailable from Ford or anybody else …
It will do the job – likely for the rest of the life of the car .
You could google tosee if there are any reports of problems with Circoli housings on your model of Focus – and go from there

It turned out that £40 was just for one part. In total, it cost me around £87 from Euro car parts, plus coolant.

I did this job on my Focus. I just got the housing from Ford for about £75 or so. I was not impressed with the design of the housing with it being made out of what felt like cheap plastic and the guy on the parts desk admitted it was a crap design. I guess its a once in an ownership sort of job so not that much of an issue ultimately. I seem to remember that yo will probably need some jubilee clips too as the hose clips that were there were some sort of crimped ones which I had to cut to remove. Also small hands and a whist with an extra joint will come in handy.

Fitted the parts yesterday, or at least my Dad did. It’s a tight and fiddley job, but not that difficult. We managed to re-use the hose clips using some adjustable pliers (Ford use a special tool).

I’ll keep an eye on the coolant levels over the next few days to make sure all is good. I suspect it will need topping up.