Red light and no heating on P38!

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TOMOGOR

TOMOGOR

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52
Location
Staffordshire
Went on short trip this morning. Temparature guage went to full with red light and I have no heating. It went intermittently up and down the guage on the way back. Running smoothly but obviously something wrong. Any ideas?
 
Your water level is seriously low. You obviously are loosing it from somewhere so you need to do some investigation. Are there any signs of water in the oil? Any obvious drips?
 
Is it just me - or is anyone dumb enuf to sit and watch the temp guage go zooming into the red and then continue to drive it, without checking water levels. Int that primary skool driving instrucshuns?
 
I've refilled the water and it seems to have cured both issues. It took about two litres. I've run it for a while and there are no apparent leaks. Will take a look at the oil as suggested. In reply to the above. If it had stayed stuck on red then I would certainly not have driven it but as it kept dropping back down to normal I assumed that it was most likely something else and risked the short drive back.
 
It werent the short drive back you risked, but a full engine rebuild. I reckon any time the gauge climbs above normal (unusually) its worth checking water level and dipstick. better to wait 5 mins than a new enjin?
 
Point taken. What is the best way to check for water in oil? Will the dipstick oil reveal this? I assume I'm looking for a cloudy colour.
 
sorta = if yu check the dipstick it can either be coated in the infamous "Mayo" (mayonaise localike) or just be unusually high - the oil is sitting on top of water and therefore at a higher than usual level. If you have a rockerbox filler, yu can see the mayo down there too, but that is sometimes the result of short distance running and forms with condensation. Your coolant bottle will possibly by cloudy and witha scum of mayo in it.

Any of those - and start looking further (and try not to drive it)
 
No mess in the coolant bottle like you described. It did make one hell of a gurgling noise when I took off the lid. Any idea how much oil there is between the upper and lower indicators?
 
Seeing as you lost heating I would check the footwell carpets esp the drivers side, you could have the infamous 'o' ring problems or a shagged matrix.
 
Footwells appear bone dry and the previous owner had this work done by the main dealer at huge cost jut before I bought it. The wells were still a bit damp when I got the car but dried out.
 
sounds like you might have been lucky and its an air lock. flush through with water annd air-bleed the system as previous posts on the subject.

And keep checking yo water level regularly.
 
watch out for the overflow pipe that runs past the battery box. Mine went and we couldn't work out where as it was hidden under the battery cover - worth a check.
 
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