AHH! My '60' plate clio is kaput

[Vinstar]

Hi folks,

Sorry for posting in the wrong section, but I need a quick answer.

If I run the heater on my car whilst the temperature gauge is at half way, then the guage will drop back down to where the engine temperature would be whilst cold. Does anyone know what this could be?

Oh and I have been pottering to and from work (5 mile round trip) however there is some mayo in the filler cap. Please someone say this is just condensation? The car has only covered 2,000 miles by the way

Thank you very much,
'Cenz

Edited by Vinstar on Tuesday 7th December 22:09

[Frik]

How long has the car been running when the temperature drops?

[ewenm]

Just happening in the cold weather?

[Flanders.]

Vinstar said:

Hi folks,

Sorry for posting in the wrong section, but I need a quick answer.

If I run the heater on my car whilst the temperature gauge is at half way, then the guage will drop back down to where the engine temperature would be whilst cold. Does anyone know what this could be?

Oh and I have been pottering to and from work (5 mile round trip this work) and there is some mayo in the filler cap. Please someone say this is just condensation? The car has only covered 2,000 miles by the way

Thank you very much,
'Cenz

The second point- mine does the same on the 5 mile drive to work. Take it for a long blast and it will be fine.
On the first point, isn't it something to do with the Thermostate (sp?) opening and taking heat away from the Engine and into the Cabin?

[klimakool]

Flanders. said:

Vinstar said:

Hi folks,

Sorry for posting in the wrong section, but I need a quick answer.

If I run the heater on my car whilst the temperature gauge is at half way, then the guage will drop back down to where the engine temperature would be whilst cold. Does anyone know what this could be?

Oh and I have been pottering to and from work (5 mile round trip this work) and there is some mayo in the filler cap. Please someone say this is just condensation? The car has only covered 2,000 miles by the way

Thank you very much,
'Cenz

The second point- mine does the same on the 5 mile drive to work. Take it for a long blast and it will be fine.
On the first point, isn't it something to do with the Thermostate (sp?) opening and taking heat away from the Engine and into the Cabin?

sounds about right. 5 mile runs are bad for cars, oil and water temp need to reach normal working temp each journey if you want to keep it for a while

[Vinstar]

Frik said:

How long has the car been running when the temperature drops?

The car at this point had been running for about 20 minutes. One other thing I noticed, when the temperature gauge drops there is a noticeable amount of smoking from the exhaust. The car isn't burning oil, well not that I have noticed.

[schmalex]

Just take it to the garage you bought it from if you are concerned

[vit4]

FWIW on my car whenever it's getting too hot and getting close to overheating, I turn the heaters on full blast. Takes the hot air out of the engine bay. I'm sure that's a simplistic explanation and I don't know exactly how it works, but it does bring the temp right down.

[Flanders.]

klimakool said:

Flanders. said:

Vinstar said:

Hi folks,

Sorry for posting in the wrong section, but I need a quick answer.

If I run the heater on my car whilst the temperature gauge is at half way, then the guage will drop back down to where the engine temperature would be whilst cold. Does anyone know what this could be?

Oh and I have been pottering to and from work (5 mile round trip this work) and there is some mayo in the filler cap. Please someone say this is just condensation? The car has only covered 2,000 miles by the way

Thank you very much,
'Cenz

The second point- mine does the same on the 5 mile drive to work. Take it for a long blast and it will be fine.
On the first point, isn't it something to do with the Thermostate (sp?) opening and taking heat away from the Engine and into the Cabin?

sounds about right. 5 mile runs are bad for cars, oil and water temp need to reach normal working temp each journey if you want to keep it for a while

I was thinking about this on the way to work. Wouldn't Car makers test the Engine for this sort of thing when it was going for R&D? Surely a Modern car can cope.

[Urban Sports]

OMG
FFS
etc

[ewenm]

Might be that a batch of cold coolant sits in the heater matrix until you add it to the main coolant loop (by turning on the heater) and the temp sensor is close to where the cold coolant mixes in. Does the temp come back up quickly?

[Crafty_]

Think of the heater like another radiator for the car, if you allow the coolant to flow through it the heat in the coolant is transferred to the air around it, thus the coolant drops in temperature, hence you see the drop on the gauge.

[Gizmo!]

Crafty_ said:

Think of the heater like another radiator for the car, if you allow the coolant to flow through it the heat in the coolant is transferred to the air around it, thus the coolant drops in temperature, hence you see the drop on the gauge.

This.

[Frik]

I seriously doubt the fan in a Clio is powerful enough to drop the temperature so considerably. Can't help thinking there might be a thermostat issue.

Regardless, it's a new car: Take it back and ask them.

[sklar]

My 10 plate Migrane doesn't get up to operating temperature on the gauge over 10 miles and 25 minutes of driving in the morning when I have the heater full on from the off in this weather.

[Colin 1985]

Crafty_ said:

Think of the heater like another radiator for the car, if you allow the coolant to flow through it the heat in the coolant is transferred to the air around it, thus the coolant drops in temperature, hence you see the drop on the gauge.

This^, eg. when a car starts to overheat in traffic you can reduce its temperature by turning on the heater full blast.

[chrisr29]

Sounds like a duff thermostat. My old Volvo is at running temp after about a mile in current conditions, having the heater on makes no difference.

Take it to the dealer.

[eldar]

Vinstar said:

Frik said:

How long has the car been running when the temperature drops?

The car at this point had been running for about 20 minutes. One other thing I noticed, when the temperature gauge drops there is a noticeable amount of smoking from the exhaust. The car isn't burning oil, well not that I have noticed.

The smoke is condensation, water. The engine isn't getting hot enough on 5 mile journeys, so the gallon of water produced by every gallon of fuel is condensing in mayonnaise and smoke, or steam. Not a problem in the short term as long as oil changes are every 4/6 months.

Needs a decent run to get the engine to full operating temp every now and again.

[Ozzie Osmond]

It's possible you set off from cold and the thermostst is closed. The water in the engine and heater matrix rise towards normal temperature (manufacturers build the car this way to give windscreen defrost as soon as possible). Then when everything's hot enough the thermostat opens and - hey presto - there's a gush of cold water from the radiator into the engine. This can easily be enough to show a rapid drop on the temperature gauge. Provided your journey continues you should see the gauge climb back to normal again as the water heats up.

Not all cars show this effect because many have a temp gauge which has a very wide range of actual temperature with the needle on "normal". It may only move off "normal" under very unusual circumstances - e.g. serious overheating.

[FranKinFezza]

in this cold weather combined with your short trips you are showing that either

1. your engine thermostat is partially stuck open.

2. in the low ambiant temperature the combination of the main rad plus the heaters rad
is overcoming the ability of the engine to maintain the temperature(unlikely but
i have the same situation with my land rover 90 due to its tropical spec rad in this
weather unless i work its nuts off)

2 is also a symptom of 1 so have your thermostat checked.


And the mayo / steam is also a symptom of a cold engine.

Take the car for a 15/20 mile .A. road run and see how you get on.
If things don't warm up correctly get your thermostat replaced.
HTH