My Cerb 4.5 - engine very very hot advice please...
Discussion
Hi all - I just wanted some advice / opinions please..
I took my Cerb on a fairly long drive last Wednesday that mainly involved motorway driving from home all the way to Harpenden. The weather was fantastic and very hot so all great, the car sat at 90/95 all the way on the motorways (M3 / M25 / M1) I arrived at a hotel and had lunch so the car cooled down. Anyway I left the hotel and made my way to classic car show on the field in Harpenden and naturally leading into Harpenden I was sat in idle traffic for around 20 mins with stop /start all the way.. The car started to idle around 100 degrees and then after quite a while of sitting in traffic the temp got up to 110 degrees !! Small amounts of stem started coming out the engine and small bursts of pressure started to exit from the water tank side of the car I believe, at that point I managed to turn off the road and find a car park, I was just about to park up and the car started revving like made (the accelerator could have got stuck?) I am not sure to be honest.. I switched the car off straight away and went off to the car show for a few hours.. Following that I got back in the car and drove her home ! Again all motorway driving and she sat around 100 degrees all the way..
Should I be concerned? The fans did kick in at certain points and the temp did drop but after a long period of sitting doing nothing and the boiling hot weather the car started to still get very hot?
Has anyone experienced anything similar ?
Thanks guys..
I took my Cerb on a fairly long drive last Wednesday that mainly involved motorway driving from home all the way to Harpenden. The weather was fantastic and very hot so all great, the car sat at 90/95 all the way on the motorways (M3 / M25 / M1) I arrived at a hotel and had lunch so the car cooled down. Anyway I left the hotel and made my way to classic car show on the field in Harpenden and naturally leading into Harpenden I was sat in idle traffic for around 20 mins with stop /start all the way.. The car started to idle around 100 degrees and then after quite a while of sitting in traffic the temp got up to 110 degrees !! Small amounts of stem started coming out the engine and small bursts of pressure started to exit from the water tank side of the car I believe, at that point I managed to turn off the road and find a car park, I was just about to park up and the car started revving like made (the accelerator could have got stuck?) I am not sure to be honest.. I switched the car off straight away and went off to the car show for a few hours.. Following that I got back in the car and drove her home ! Again all motorway driving and she sat around 100 degrees all the way..
Should I be concerned? The fans did kick in at certain points and the temp did drop but after a long period of sitting doing nothing and the boiling hot weather the car started to still get very hot?
Has anyone experienced anything similar ?
Thanks guys..
All the above really.
If it was OK on the motorway.
Then got hot in traffic.
Then ran a little hot on the motorway drive home.
It sort of suggests that you might have a loose or corroded connection on the water thermostat. Which wasn't noticed on the motorway drive over, but meant that you had intermittent fans when stuck in traffic, which caused you to vent coolant so that on your motorway drive home the lack of coolant caused it to run hotter than earlier.
If it was OK on the motorway.
Then got hot in traffic.
Then ran a little hot on the motorway drive home.
It sort of suggests that you might have a loose or corroded connection on the water thermostat. Which wasn't noticed on the motorway drive over, but meant that you had intermittent fans when stuck in traffic, which caused you to vent coolant so that on your motorway drive home the lack of coolant caused it to run hotter than earlier.
Check your water levels, do you get heat with the interior fan blowing (thinking airlock).
It's probably a dirty electrical connection, although for £150 I had my radiator rebuilt with extra cores for additional cooling. That an a remap with the cooling mod to bring the fans in earlier mean I never go over 95 now.
It's probably a dirty electrical connection, although for £150 I had my radiator rebuilt with extra cores for additional cooling. That an a remap with the cooling mod to bring the fans in earlier mean I never go over 95 now.
You must first establish where the steam is coming from.
I had steam escape from my cooling system once when the plastic 'Y'-shaped junction piece, located at the back of the engine, had split - cost 67p to fix.
Or it could be a badly-fitting/functioning reservoir cap.
Before going extreme with Rad swaps you should establish that you have a full cooling system so bleed it on an upward hill as described somewhere on this forum. Then, when you're sure it is full, run the engine stationary and, with the bonnet up, check at what temperature the fans come on (and whether they actually drop the coolant temperature).
Whilst the car is in motion, at the mentioned speeds, I don't get over 86°C.
I, too, have Joo's 'Coolchip' fitted and swear by it.
I once had the temp up to 110 in a traffic jam in Italy in mid-summer but have also been stuck in a 3-hour jam in the UK and not exceeded 98 !
Little steps.....
Oh, and it might be a good idea to check the path of the water guage capiliary feed pipe.
It should be directly over the (exterior to the engine) water transfer pipe and not underneath - which would leave it too close to the exhaust pipe and give misleading readings.
A la....
Best o'
I had steam escape from my cooling system once when the plastic 'Y'-shaped junction piece, located at the back of the engine, had split - cost 67p to fix.
Or it could be a badly-fitting/functioning reservoir cap.
Before going extreme with Rad swaps you should establish that you have a full cooling system so bleed it on an upward hill as described somewhere on this forum. Then, when you're sure it is full, run the engine stationary and, with the bonnet up, check at what temperature the fans come on (and whether they actually drop the coolant temperature).
Whilst the car is in motion, at the mentioned speeds, I don't get over 86°C.
I, too, have Joo's 'Coolchip' fitted and swear by it.
I once had the temp up to 110 in a traffic jam in Italy in mid-summer but have also been stuck in a 3-hour jam in the UK and not exceeded 98 !
Little steps.....
Oh, and it might be a good idea to check the path of the water guage capiliary feed pipe.
It should be directly over the (exterior to the engine) water transfer pipe and not underneath - which would leave it too close to the exhaust pipe and give misleading readings.
A la....
Best o'
You will only get a true absolute temperature reading from the diagnostics. The gauge is good at letting you know whether the car is running hotter or cooler than usual, but not much else.
If you didn't hear anything untoward, tappety top end, pinking, etc then you probably have nothing to worry about. If it did start sounding odd, then you should be more concerned, and obviously oil and coolant mixing is really bad news.
Do what any garage would do, change the cheap things first: expansion tank cap, thermostat, radiator, and possibly hoses if they are rubber rather than silicone (if you think the overheating is due to a leak).
If you didn't hear anything untoward, tappety top end, pinking, etc then you probably have nothing to worry about. If it did start sounding odd, then you should be more concerned, and obviously oil and coolant mixing is really bad news.
Do what any garage would do, change the cheap things first: expansion tank cap, thermostat, radiator, and possibly hoses if they are rubber rather than silicone (if you think the overheating is due to a leak).
This is my Cerb temp gauge experience (copied from another thread):
My temp gauge was very unreliable when I bought my car, until I broke it during a top end rebuild. The gauge then became even more useless during several professional repair attempts, until eventually it seemed to work ok.
Then two months ago after a great track day at Anglesey it started playing up on the way home, jumping about just as you describe. I became quite despondent over the prospect of trying to get it repaired again.
After an hour of driving with the gauge going bonkers the car started pinking - Oh No!
It wasn't misbehaving, the car was overheating badly. I was only ten minutes away from my destination when I pulled up and stopped, after letting the car cool down I tip toed back for the last ten minutes. After a couple of glasses of vino, I filled the cooling system with nearly ten litres of water.
The expansion tank does have a coolant level sensor, but in their wisdom TVR decided to leave it unused. My rad had sprang a leak, and on the four hour drive back from the track, most coolant had been lost, and that I thought was probably the end of my AJP8.
After replacing the rad and doing track days at Zolder and the Ring, I can be pretty certain no permanent damage was caused, but I reckon it was a very close call.
My temp gauge was very unreliable when I bought my car, until I broke it during a top end rebuild. The gauge then became even more useless during several professional repair attempts, until eventually it seemed to work ok.
Then two months ago after a great track day at Anglesey it started playing up on the way home, jumping about just as you describe. I became quite despondent over the prospect of trying to get it repaired again.
After an hour of driving with the gauge going bonkers the car started pinking - Oh No!
It wasn't misbehaving, the car was overheating badly. I was only ten minutes away from my destination when I pulled up and stopped, after letting the car cool down I tip toed back for the last ten minutes. After a couple of glasses of vino, I filled the cooling system with nearly ten litres of water.
The expansion tank does have a coolant level sensor, but in their wisdom TVR decided to leave it unused. My rad had sprang a leak, and on the four hour drive back from the track, most coolant had been lost, and that I thought was probably the end of my AJP8.
After replacing the rad and doing track days at Zolder and the Ring, I can be pretty certain no permanent damage was caused, but I reckon it was a very close call.
Hi everyone thanks again for your replies... Just an update following a quick spin today, I rolled the car out of the garage today mainly to wash it but I thought I would take it for a quick run around the block anyway, I started it and the revs kept dropping very low on idle and eventually the car cut out so I started it again and gave it some small amount of revs. I drove out of our estate and the car would not rev beyond 2000rpm it literally lost all power and started to shake and splatter. So I quickly drove it back home and left it running on the drive and it started to heat up.. it got to 95 degrees and the fans started up (Great) then after about 5 mins it dropped down to 90 and then back up to 95 and then all of sudden it started to throw coolant and steam out of the coolant tank and the temp showed 110 !!! so I switched it straight off and cleaned up. I washed the car polished it etc and feeling really low and upset I thought before I put it away in the garage I will run it around the block again so on I went.. The car went fine ! It revved above 2000 rpm and drove normally !! So odd. I got it back and noticed a load of coolant had leaked on the floor and also one of the fans or the pipe next to the fan was hissing so I looked and I could see a small amount of coolant leaking from somewhere.. ? The pink coolant seemed low in the tank but apart from that it seemed fine.. I am however worried about the car overheating again and also more damage..
I am not very technical so I may just end up taking it to my local TVR specialist but do you have any ideas on what this could be?
I am not very technical so I may just end up taking it to my local TVR specialist but do you have any ideas on what this could be?
The initial problem, lack of power and spluttering, was probably due to washing the car and getting water around the coil packs/HT leads, and unrelated to the overheating issue.
The overheating could be due to any number of things as mentioned earlier, including air locks, faulty thermostat, blocked rad, etc.
The overheating could be due to any number of things as mentioned earlier, including air locks, faulty thermostat, blocked rad, etc.
I would agree with having the car transported rather than driven. Had mine transported from Ascot to APM (Near Liphook) for £80 with this company: http://www.autowheelersrecovery.co.uk/80610/info.p... first time I used them, would do it again if needed.
There's also http://www.car-mover.co.uk/ who are more local to you, could be cheaper, but I haven't used them.
There's also http://www.car-mover.co.uk/ who are more local to you, could be cheaper, but I haven't used them.
Hi everyone thank you for your help and advice.. I managed to paly around with it and I think it is fixed. The coolant level was very low and I had air trapped in the radiator so I managed to sort it all out. Without the help and advice of you guys I wouldn't have been able to sort it. Thank you all so much, it is so nice to have such a helpful community of fellow TVR owners and enthusiasts..
jackwibble said:
Sounds like you deffo need to check those electrical connector blocks for the fans to make sure their nice and clean so the fans cut in as they should then look at the Jools cooling chip mod it's spot on.
Agreed, there's a reason steam came out, leading to loss of coolant. It will likely happen again. None of this explains the throttle getting stuck, or engine running away either.
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