what the feck is up with it now

thought my td 90 was all sorted with the overheating side of things,new rad couple of weeks ago..all has been fine up untill last sunday.spent all day approx 7 hrs on pay and play site with no probs atall temp guage sat in middle,even cleaned the rad a couple of times with a hose pipe.jetwashed motor when we left including the rad,but on the way home temp guage went of the end of the white and we had to pull over abot 3 times on the way home and let the motor cool down..trouble is as daft as it sounds how do i know if the temp guage is correct and the landy is overheating without letting it get to the point where steam ****es out everywhere?

so say im ****ed of with this is an understatement,ive spent over £1100 on the landy in the past 6 weeks and if at the end of each day if its gonna do this i would sooner leave it at home.

what i cant get me head round is how we put the motor thru its paces all day and it doesnt even flutter one bit,yet when we drive home its a problem

can anyone shed some light on things to try or eliminate?
cheers

Hi. Sorry to hear about your problems, will try and help.

1) Check the temperature sender unit is working.

Find the sender unit on top of engine. It will have 1 wire attached. Discontec wire and insulate, it is live with ignition on.
Get a multi meter that reads resistance (ohms), attach one lead to terminal and the other to the engine near the sender, it earths via the block. Start the engine and watch the reading, it should change in at a steady rate as the engine warms up. If it reading stays steady then jumps the sender is shot.

2) Check the supply to the sender.

Use a volt meter to check that there is battery voltage at the lead you removed. If the lead is damaged or just old it's resistance will be wrong and will affect the temp' gauge reading.

The temperature gauge is an electical item. Voltage is applied to the gauge, down the wire, into the sender then to earth. All the it does is measure the resistance of the sender and indicate it on the gauge as a temperature.

3) Check the thermostat is working.

The thermostat may not be opening fully. At slow speeds, and low engine loads with your new radiator this may not be a problem. But at road speed when the engine is working hard it will restrict the flow to the rad'.
Remove the thermostat and check the temperature stamped on it, should be about 85 C. You will need a thermometer, stick the thermostat in a pan of water. Heat up on the cooker and check the temperature. The thermostat should start to open as the water heats up. It should be fully open at the temperature stamped on it.


Try these first as they are quick and cheap, only a gasket for the thermostat.

Good luck.

many thanks for your input,i have cleaned the rad again tonite.the back was a bit muddy but not soaked in mud.as ive cleaned it i will try your suggestions i have an auto electrician friend so will call in a favour.ta

start it from cold, and go for a short drive. If the temp gauge goes up a lot quicker than normal, it is probably knackered. Mine was, took me ages to convince myself to look at the gauge system over the cooling system, they normally fail first!

looks like i got a busy weekend then..

60FL88 said:

The thermostat may not be opening fully. At slow speeds, and low engine loads with your new radiator this may not be a problem. But at road speed when the engine is working hard it will restrict the flow to the rad'.

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Definitely check this out. I had the same problem recently, temperature went up when driving full speed, and down when stopped/driving slowly. Replaced the stat and the needle stays in virtually the same place all the time now. They are cheap to replace as well.

hi does it over heat or it the temp gauge to high. i had a problem with my temp gauge getting too high but it wasnt over heating so a friend told me to get a 10w/220 ohms resisitor and put it in between the green wire that leads to your sender unit. you can get these from RS COMPONENTS they cost less than a pound. if you can not get 1 i have a spare.

problem i have is the guage goes past the white section and when it gets there i pull over..without letting it actually boil over which i dont want to do i am not sure if it actually reading correct

wiltshire landyman said:

problem i have is the guage goes past the white section and when it gets there i pull over..without letting it actually boil over which i dont want to do i am not sure if it actually reading correct

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get yourself an infra red thermometer. You can check the temperature at various parts of the cooling system without having to take the cap off.

Do the pipes feel too hot?

rac man had one of those 1st time it overheated and it tells you temp in and out of pipes which is quite good.strange thing is the exspansion bottle is hot but not boiling hot that you cant touch it,1st time b4 new rad when it overheated you could get no where near the exspansion bottle it was that hot

wiltshire landyman said:

rac man had one of those 1st time it overheated and it tells you temp in and out of pipes which is quite good.strange thing is the exspansion bottle is hot but not boiling hot that you cant touch it,1st time b4 new rad when it overheated you could get no where near the exspansion bottle it was that hot

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can you touch the pipes?

Off the top of my head I think 95 deg is what it's operating temperature is.

By the sound of it it may well be a temp sensor fault.

seems to be all pointing that way..pipes are hot..think ill try a couple of the suggestions on sunday

This may sound strange but i had some probs with me charginging system on me 110 my temp gauge allso went off scale but never overheated played around for months with no joy. then i changed me main body to enjun earth lead wot a result.