Overheated - Car and Owner....suggestions welcome.

[Crystal-T]

Having owned my pride and joy for three weeks and not managed to enjoy The Beast much due to the inclement weather, I decided to go out tonight for a gentle run.

Ten minutes later, I'm stuck in a jam, unable to manouvre anywhere and the temp guage starts to rapidly climb reaching 110. Steam hissing out the bonnet vents and a worried passer-by telling me water is pissing out.

I pull over, manage to safely park and shut everything down to allow her to cool. Twenty minutes later and alot of replacement coolant, I gently get her back on the road to return home. Manged to get home but the temp rose rapidly again and once again much steam hissing. Unlike most of you lot, I'm not great under a bonnet, but I did check and make sure the cap on the expansion tank was tight. Couldn't tell if the rad kicked in or not.

Now a worried man and unsure what next to do other than call my local dealership and see if thy can collect and sort it out.

It's a 4.2 2003 if that's of any relevance or interest.

Thanks for any insights and suggestions.

[gcpeters]

first thing to do is make sure that the fans are kicking in

if you have aircon you will have 2, 1 will kick in about 95 then the other about 100 i think

if you do a search for fans there is a load of threads on this, my main one wouldnt cut in, a quick clean of the connectors under the panel and all was well!!

[JensenA]

(I'm assuming that water isnt leaking from the sytem.........)

Could well be an airlock. Let the engine cool and bleed the system. Make sure the car is level, or with the nose up. Undo the big bolt head 'bleed valve' on the Radiator. If no water comes out, then add water through this hole until full.

[Crystal-T]

Thanks gents for your suggestions so far. I'll take a look at these over the weekend.

[Scrooloose]

How many of these posts do we see??

New owners having fairly major trouble within the first few days/weeks of ownership - most of it stuff the previous owner would have known about!

I guess that buying a car that is known on PH is a very good idea!

[Crystal-T]

An interesting sentiment Scoolose. The car was purchased via PH, the previous owner did acknoledge it occasionally got hot, the pre-purchase inspection at the oldest dealer in the UK located in North London didn't note an issue, so what is one to do?

[Scrooloose]

Furry muff. I stand corrected

[amazon]

Chin up Crystal T - doesn't sound a big problem Think there's some dry roads coming up too, so get it fixed asap!

Edited to add: You are in the same county as me, give me a shout if you need any recommendations.

Actually.... YHM

Edited by amazon on Friday 25th January 09:28

[Mike Hawthorn]

I also have a 4.2 also in Crystal Topaz (2000 model)when I bought it, it also would overheat in traffic very quickly. I once had the needle off the water segment and in the Oil side of the gauge. Anyhow it turned out I had a small leak in the bottom rad connection. I think any other car would have kept cool but the Cerb is not just any car and the pressure loss was probably to much. The boys at Fernhurt fitted a new rad under warranty and it was fine. I've fitted overrides to the fans which I can manually put on if I get worried. I've taken the car to LeMans a couple of times in the really hot weather and sat in traffic that only LeMans can produce over the 24 hours. No problems at all. So make sure there are not any even minor leaks, bleed the system and enjoy the car. Once sorted it'll be fine.

[julian64]

Where do you live?

If you are near my neck of the woods pop in, (near brands hatch) If not a nice PH'er person with a laptop is the place to go.

First, find out where the steam is comming from.

Two, make sure the fans are comming on

Three, check your dash temp gauge is pointing to 92 at the time your first fan comes on and 95 for the second.

Four check the wires very near the air con belt on the right as you look at the front of the engine. The wirse from the electrical temp sender are loosely held very near the moving belt and are often chaffed.

If all else fails stick a laptop on the engine.

Usual reason for this is overfilling expansion tank or poorly bled system, so don't worry.

[big_treacle]

I had this occur & it turned out to be a knackered radiator. New one cured the problem & wasn't expensive.

[Buffoon]

Get the rad thoroughgly checked out regardless of whether there are leaks, air locks etc. They are prone to deteriate and don't cost much for a recore

[Crystal-T]

Thanks for all your support and suggestions. The car is now with my local TVR dealership as it's due a 12k service plus a few other matters to sort which were picked up in the pre-purchase inspection. Adding the overheating issue just expedites sorting these things too.

Have decided to get as much done now, take the cost on the chin and have one hell of a beast ready and prep'd for the spring.

[Keithyboy]

julian64 said:

. . .
Three, check your dash temp gauge is pointing to 92 at the time your first fan comes on and 95 for the second. . .

or 102 and 105 on many guages due to the poorly routed capillary tubing giving the reading mine included
eta - agree from experience with the comment about air locks in the system often causing this problem.

Edited by Keithyboy on Sunday 27th January 16:00

[JensenA]

..........and dont forget to let us expert 'diagnosti' know what the problem/solution was.

[ancol]

yes will be interesting to find the cause good luck anyway

[FarmyardPants]

Ask them to pressure test the rad. They have a tendency to fail such that they only leak under pressure, ie when hot. Happened to me, new rad fixed it. As above, quite cheap.

[hugepiece]

I also replaced the std chip on mine with a cooling chip from TCS that brought the fans on earlier which made a huge difference, the car never really used to overheat as such it just got hot inside and I was always checking the guage.