overheating HELP!

[mikeoxford]

i NEVER see my gauge go past the first normal mark, not the blue cold one but the second one, but lately my gauge is always on half.

today for the first time it crept to 3/4s which iwas not happy about

anyway

heater on full and out windows sorted it for a bit when i was stuck in trafic, as soon as i was movin, fine again

i am going to check the thermostat and fan. will it be those??

14 sr guys

reason i wanna have go sortin is i dont wana be sat in queue to trax with smoke billowing!!

thanks
mike

[Dicko]

at the 1st mark it shud send water through rad insted of re-circulating, at 2nd mark )top mark) it shud kick in the fan.

check the fan connectors on the switch at the bottom corner of the rad. or leave engine runing and make sure fan kicks in at that mark.

if it does but engine temp aint droping very quickly, id advise doing a flush as you might have an airlock in your system.

i do this every 6 months.

take off bottom hose from expansion tank, shove the hosepipe fitting in the end (tight seal to get a little bit of pressure) then turn it on and leave runing for 5 mins to clear as much shit as possible out the radiator/cooling system.
Then put as much coolant in as you can. its about ?10 for 5L and it usually takes 6L to fill completely, so use the 5L of coolant and the rest water as the coolant disperses the heat better, and doesnt expand as much as the water when it gets real hot cuasing other probs!

[jim sri]

my 1400 sr had the same problem, but mine turned out to be a nackered water pump, costed me about 40 quid for new water pump+cambelt+labour-so not too bad. check for this under the engine,beneath the cambelt housing,mine was dripping down the oil sump.

[Chris LR]

Check the Gauge and the Sender. If it's corroded or loose that could be your problem, far cheaper than replacing thermos, fans, belts etc

[jim sri]

is my car abnormal then cos the normal temp is half way up the gauge, always was, with sr clocks and also now with digidash.and it had a new thermostat not too long ago!?

[jon_boy]

lol, i know this doesnt hav much relevance but i was in a car with a fella the other day and his fanbelt went. he thought he could make it home but in a queue of traffic summin (later turned out to be just a big fat hose) made the biggest explosion ever. fun to watch cos i dont really like him, but scary as fook. and prob bad for the engine. ROFL. made me laff tho cos he's a nugget.

[dikharvey]

My car did the same it was the thermostat. It is at the bottom of the radiator, unplug the two wires and touch them together, the fan should go round, if it doesnt the fan is knacakered. If the fan does go round but doesnt come on under normal conditions it could be the theormostat, i got a replacment from the scrappy for ?1! Bargain!

[Aragorn]

fan belt????

the nova's engine fan runs on an electric motor

therte are only 2 belts under there - the alternator drive belt - which prolly wouldnt have affected the car, at least untill the battery went dead - and the timing belt which if it went would have rendered the engine fucked

u mention a hose? if it was a cooling hose (ie big fat one connected to radiator) and it burst did he turn the engine off streight away? cos if he drove home with no coolant im surprised the engine never siezed or at least cracked the block or in some other way totally shafted it

[ade]

lol - ,my 1.2 phat hose went about 3 years ago after my water pump failed - scared the shot out of me - thought someone was firing a shot gun! Luckily I was right outside the garage I used at the time.

Strangely though, my temp gauge rises pretty quck and has just started creeping over the 1/2 way mark - fan kicks in but I also get that horrible "hot rubber melting" smell. I might flush engine out in the next coupld of weeks in time for winter.

Ade