Over Heating Engine

poppasmurf_bewdley

I've been driving for almost 50 years and in that time I've had two thermostats seize on me - both in the closed position. Symptoms sound exactly as you describe. If you are able, take off the thermostat housing and remove the thermostat, then replace the housing and top up with water. If your engine then runs cool and doesn't heat the water, the stat was at fault.

amcg100

Regardless of any other fault - sounds like your head gasket might need doing as well - good luck

john432

Thanks for the positive posts.

Really hope it is the thermostat.

Will post back in a couple of days when I know what the cause is.

Norman_Castle

Sounds like a stuck or sticking thermostat. First hour may have been helped by having the heater on high.

bluesnake

are you not able to bypass the thermostat and bodge/wire it so the fan is constantly on full speed?

Strider590

bluesnake wrote: »

are you not able to bypass the thermostat and bodge/wire it so the fan is constantly on full speed?

We're talking about a mechanic thermostatic valve. Not the fan thermostat :cool:, but your not wrong, that's exactly what you'd do if the fan thermostat was faulty.

mattyprice4004

amcg100 wrote: »

Regardless of any other fault - sounds like your head gasket might need doing as well - good luck

No it doesn't.

I reckon closed thermostat too - change this and you should be good to go.

Also, you'll usually see coolant circulating in the header tank even when the stat is closed - it's how a lot of engines self-bleed.

john432

Garage have come back and said, nothing wrong. No evidence of head gasket failure. Temperature of engine / coolant are correct. Thermostat and coolong fans working.
So, will run the car as normal, and see if it happens again. Garage advise to change thermostat and coolant if it does it again.
Hopeing it ia just a one off situation. At least by stopping immediately it stopped any damage to engine.
Will post back if any thing happens again. Thanks all.

Crabman

Did the garage road test it to try and replicate the problem?

If you're happy to use the car again, it would be best to do so close to home (or the garage) as the RAC may kick up a fuss if the same problem results in another call out where a repair hasn't been done. That said you should be able to use the evidence from the garage (hope they wrote it down for you) that says they've checked and found no issue.

cb1979

The Garage did not have time to road test it for 1 hour on the Motorway so i expect your problem will return as the weather gets warmer over the next few months

Did they replace the thermostat? its hard to test the operation of a thermostat properly if boiled up in a pan as it it not under pressure

If the say they cannot find anything wrong either the Radiator is partially blocked which will only show on a long hard run or the Temperature Gauge may be faulty