car not getting up to temp after exhaust/prop change

[mineralblue]

Good evening all,
wondered if anyone could enlighten me as to this issue.
Just had a new centre bearing fitted on my 325i prop and also a new(ish) centre and back box for the exhaust. When I picked it up from the garage it was smoking a fair amount which the garage put down to the exhaust coming off a car that was losing oil. The exhaust is almost new and since a 25 mile drive it seems to have almost stopped smoking, so I hope their thoughts are correct.
However since picking it up the temp gauge is barely getting above the blue marker at the bottom?
It has always run inbetween a 1/4 and a 1/2 before.
Any ideas as to why this has suddenly happened please and is it ok?
It seems to be running fine and I have hot air through the vents, albeit not quite as warm.
My only thoughts are that is is breathing a lot better but it does seem to be running on a very low temp.


Opinions/thoughts appreciated guys.

[kam-325i]

For the work you have described, it should of had no ill effect on the running temp of the engine....

it sounds as though the engine is over-cooling, cause by either an open thermostat or a seized viscous coupling on the radiator fan.

dose the needle move at all ?, they may have knocked the connection on the temp sensor.

[mineralblue]

Hello, yeah the needle moves and they would of been nowhere near the temp sensor for the work done?
Either of the other 2 reasons you describe would therefore be a complete coincidence that they have started playing up whilst in the garage. Viscous coupling is no more than 18 months old.

[kam-325i]

If the vicous has packed up, you would notice the "Whooshing" noise.
How old is the thermostat ?

[mineralblue]

No whoosh sir and stat is probably 5 years old by now. Think I will change it and the brown temp plug and see where we go from there, just weird it started sfter the work was done and never before. Thanks for your assistance.