Car over heating

Mr_Grumpy_7

The temperature guage on a modern car should rise to 'normal' and then stay put. IMO, anything else indicates a fault.

I had an experience a few years ago with a Vauxhall Nova. The water pump started to leak so our local garage replaced said water pump and also, as it was more accessible, the thermostat. From then on the temperature would rise to just below the red, and then return to 'normal'. This was a constant cycle whilst in traffic and obviously not right. Back to the garage the car went, they tested it, including the new thermostat, and could not find anything wrong. Eventually they fitted a different and slightly modified thermostat as a work around.

A couple of years later we had the car looked at by Home Tune. The chap was not happy with the time the car took to come up to temperature so replaced the thermostat and all was OK. So, I suspect the one fitted 2 years previously was either the wrong type or faulty.

When something changes like this it usually indicates a problem. I would suggest checking the obvious, coolant level, etc. and then look to replace the thermostat and maybe the sensor for the fan. I certainly would not ignore it as in the long run the engine will suffer.

Birdy

sickofhavingnomoney wrote:

My OH's car is a corsa and sometimes when he is sat in traffic the temp gauge goes up quite high..... A few months ago it went up to just below the red bit so we took it to garage who said that they could not see anything wrong. As tax was due we declared sorn and left it for a while until we had some money to get it sorted. Well we took it to a different garage yeaterday who also couldn't see anything wrong... they took it on a nine mile drive and said that the temp gauge goes up to about 97 before the fan kicks in which they say is fine.... They said that whatever it was that was wrong could have worked its way out by now! I am scared in case it goes up to the red again but two garages have said its fine....
Does anyone else have experience of this?

Same thing happened to us - L Reg Corsa GSI Auto - garage said nothing wrong, fan cutting in as it should.

Sometime later serviced elsewhere, told wrong plugs on, not sure if coincidence or not, but it's not heating up as much now!

B.