4.3 Griff Overheating badly - please help
Discussion
Thanks in advance for any help given!
The car has been standing for about 6 weeks (as I am recovering from a broken leg) but tried to get it going yesterday. Battery was flat (even though I had been using a solar battery charger! that's another story) but managed to jump start it.
Took it for a 40-minute drive, and when I got back steam started poring from the water header tank filler cap! The fans did come on, but it drained the battery again!
Put it on trickle charge overnight, and it started first time this morning, but continued to warm up right into the red whilst just ticking over.
Steam again from header cap, but the fans did not come on this time, even though the radiator was hot. Checked fan fuse and relay - both seem OK.
Can anybody advise the next thing to try please?
Many thanks
Andy
>> Edited by thatch on Sunday 13th November 12:21
The car has been standing for about 6 weeks (as I am recovering from a broken leg) but tried to get it going yesterday. Battery was flat (even though I had been using a solar battery charger! that's another story) but managed to jump start it.
Took it for a 40-minute drive, and when I got back steam started poring from the water header tank filler cap! The fans did come on, but it drained the battery again!
Put it on trickle charge overnight, and it started first time this morning, but continued to warm up right into the red whilst just ticking over.
Steam again from header cap, but the fans did not come on this time, even though the radiator was hot. Checked fan fuse and relay - both seem OK.
Can anybody advise the next thing to try please?
Many thanks
Andy
>> Edited by thatch on Sunday 13th November 12:21
sounds like the thermostat might have stuck in hte closed position .. they normally fail *safe* as in open .. but that assumes they fail when they'ev not been standing in the closed position for 6 weeks.
for the price of a thermostat it's well worth changing that anyway.
if the stat is closed and water isn't circulating through past the fan switch then that would never get hot enough to switch the fans in anyway, and if no water is circulating around the radiator having the fans running won't help cool anything.
you can disconnect the terminals from the fan switch and bridge them out with a piece of wire or paper clip or something like that to see if the fans power up .. that tells you if the rest of teh fan circuit os working s it shoud, but doesn't tell you if the fan switch is ok .. my guess tho is that the water isn't circulating around the radiator part of the system to begin with .. to prove this the heater would get hot but the cooling radiator wouldn't ...
for the price of a thermostat it's well worth changing that anyway.
if the stat is closed and water isn't circulating through past the fan switch then that would never get hot enough to switch the fans in anyway, and if no water is circulating around the radiator having the fans running won't help cool anything.
you can disconnect the terminals from the fan switch and bridge them out with a piece of wire or paper clip or something like that to see if the fans power up .. that tells you if the rest of teh fan circuit os working s it shoud, but doesn't tell you if the fan switch is ok .. my guess tho is that the water isn't circulating around the radiator part of the system to begin with .. to prove this the heater would get hot but the cooling radiator wouldn't ...
It appears to be behaving itself now!
Took the connectors off the back of what I think is the otter switch (i.e. the connectors on the back of the sensor at the bottom of the expansion chamber) shorted them with a paper clip, and the fans started no problem - the connectors looked a bit rusty, so tried to clean them and re-connected.
warmed it up again and the fans came on at 90 degs when the radiator was hot, temp came down. let it cycle through another 2 heating cycles - all seems fine.
Taking it out for a spin now - will replace the otter switch soon anyway!
Thanks again for everyone's comments!
>> Edited by thatch on Sunday 13th November 14:12
Took the connectors off the back of what I think is the otter switch (i.e. the connectors on the back of the sensor at the bottom of the expansion chamber) shorted them with a paper clip, and the fans started no problem - the connectors looked a bit rusty, so tried to clean them and re-connected.
warmed it up again and the fans came on at 90 degs when the radiator was hot, temp came down. let it cycle through another 2 heating cycles - all seems fine.
Taking it out for a spin now - will replace the otter switch soon anyway!
Thanks again for everyone's comments!
>> Edited by thatch on Sunday 13th November 14:12
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