jas-E 1 Posted February 13, 2006 hi guys... i finally got a new 205 h reg 1.9 after my last one went up in flames in november!!!and am glad to say i got an awesome deal and am real happy wid this one as it has abs and PAS...just has a few problems which are more or less taken care of, but one problem has really got my head spinnin!!! the radiator had a leak in it, so i went and got a new one from euro car parts straight up and fitted it...checked all the hoses for leaks and even though the metal water pipe near the driver side wheel is really rusted, there are no leaks...in my old car, when the car had warmed up, the temperature gauge pointed at the 4th bar from the left, and when i was in traffic, the fan kicked in at the 6th or 7th bar...but with this car, the temp gauge sits on the 5th bar, and sometimes slightly higher, and when im in traffic, it does not move from there at all..iv been stuck in M25 traffic for 2 hours, and i didnt hear the fan kick in at all...the gauge just very slowly edged towards the 6th bar...in 2hours!!!then a while back, all of a sudden the stop light came on and the temperatue gauge had shot right up...i immediately stoppd the car and tried connecting the fan directly to see if the thermostat was faulty, but the fan wouldnt start working...so i need to replace the fan, but the strange thing is, if the fan doesnt work, then how come iv been in traffic and the car does not overheat??and also the car runs much hotter than compared to my last car and to my mates car!!! any suggestions will be greatly appreciated... thanks, Jas Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest TSL 333 Posted February 13, 2006 From what I have read, I understand that the dials in these cars are very unreliable. That said, it does seem strange that your cooling fan came on...... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TEKNOPUG 3 Posted February 13, 2006 Run a search. It's most likely a dodgy thermostat. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
pugrallye 0 Posted February 13, 2006 (edited) dodgy thermostat wouldnt cause car to run hot for two hours, would have shot right up as soon as hit traffic if it was that, would look at testing ran fan, and suspect ran fan switch fault, and as everyone knows, dont rely on gauge reading correct runnning temp, sounds like rad fan has seized though, as you have pretty much diagnosed yourself Edited February 13, 2006 by pugrallye Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
pug_ham 242 3 Cars Posted February 14, 2006 It might only run on low speed (which is usually quiet). There should be a brown three pin plug hanging loose at the nearside of the radiator & coming from the blue temp switch plug on the radiator just under the top hose. Bridge the middle & either side pins & the fans should run either slow of fast depending on which way you have bridged the connections. Also check the fuses in the black box on the slam panel, thats where the fuse for the cooling fan is iirc. Graham. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TEKNOPUG 3 Posted February 14, 2006 dodgy thermostat wouldnt cause car to run hot for two hours, would have shot right up as soon as hit traffic if it was that, would look at testing ran fan, and suspect ran fan switch fault, and as everyone knows, dont rely on gauge reading correct runnning temp, sounds like rad fan has seized though, as you have pretty much diagnosed yourself You would only know that it's been running hot for 2 hours because the guages say so, and the guages run from the thermostat.... It would have overheated if it had truly been running hot for that long. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tom_m 0 Posted February 14, 2006 (edited) if it crept up slowly and then shot up all of a sudden i'd say the high speed on your fan switch is knackered so that when it changed from low speed to high speed the fan switched off instead of going faster. this would explain the slow gain in temp as it slowly got too hot for the slow fan to cope with followed by it shooting up when the fan stoped. to be fair tho if you have a new rad then the slow fan 'ought' to be enough. are you sure you've no airlocks or leaks you don't know about yet? Edited February 14, 2006 by tom_m Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
pugrallye 0 Posted February 14, 2006 you would see more than a temp guage moving if thermostat was knackered, such as expansion bottle boiling over, pinking, etc Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jas-E 1 Posted February 15, 2006 (edited) thanks for your responses guys... i did disconnect the thermostat switch on the radiator and connect it directly to see if the fan was working and it did not kick in, so it cud be the fan...i will check the fuses later on this week and go from there... [if it crept up slowly and then shot up all of a sudden i'd say the high speed on your fan switch is knackered so that when it changed from low speed to high speed the fan switched off instead of going faster. this would explain the slow gain in temp as it slowly got too hot for the slow fan to cope with followed by it shooting up when the fan stoped. to be fair tho if you have a new rad then the slow fan 'ought' to be enough. are you sure you've no airlocks or leaks you don't know about yet?] if the high speed on the fan switch is knackered as Tom said, then do i need to replace the whole switch or are they separate switches?? also any ideas on why it runs hotter than standard when im driving on the motorway? i have checked the system for air locks, and will do again to confirm tom, but the water level has not dropped so i guess there is no leak in the system Edited February 15, 2006 by jas-E Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rob_the_Sparky 9 Posted February 15, 2006 Quick low down on how the fan system works: The rad sensor has two switches. The first one switches on the fan via a large resistor, this is the slow speed fan. The second switches direct to the fan, this is high speed. If slow speed only is dead then it will probably be the resistor. If the fan doesn't work when testing by taking off the fan switch connector and shorting out pairs of connections on there is a problem with the wiring or fans. Otherwise it will be a problem with the thrmoswitch. It is generally the thermoswitch at fault. Running hot when not stationary will usually be either a thermostat or a radiator problem but remember that it could just be a temperature sensor/gauge problem! Try a search, I'm sure PumaRacing answered just this question in a much better way than I could recently (correcting my reply as to what symptoms are caused by what problem wrt overheating). Rob Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jas-E 1 Posted February 15, 2006 Cheers Rob...will look for his answer... thanks anyway.. Jas Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
