radiator check? PLZ HELP!

[Sy_325]

hi guys.

Seems am having a bad run with the sport i obtained recently, but the problems are increasing my knowledge of the car which i am enjoying (which my wallet is not enjoying lol)

The most recent problem is a case of overheating, am going to explain the whole story as it makes things much easier for u guys to negotiate and make recommendations.

Yesterday, myself and 2 friends took the sport down to an alarm centre to quote prices for security. being a cold day, I left the motor on with the heat up to 4 for the passengers who wanted to sit in the car while i went and inquired inside. While inside the building, one passenger decided to drop the heat to cold after becoming uncomfortably warm (I had instructed both passengers to turn the car off if it gets too warm inside and to watch the temp gauge).

So i'm inside for a bout 10mins, I walk outside again to lul over the costs of Clifford alarm systems to find steam bellowing out from underneath the bonnet. I run over to the car and switch it off (thankfully none of the pipes blew from pressure). The passengers had been sitting chatting with the car on, fan down to cold and the heater off... and had failed to notice the temp gauge well up into the red, nor the collosal amount of steam rising from the front of the car vauxhall men... hmmfff

sat for 10 mins, topped up the car with close to boiling water, then proceeded down the road, watched with a concerned eye as the temp gauge went from high to low for the duration of the journey...

landed with my mechanic, who informed me about the dud viscous fan, and recommended to change the water pump while i was at it. So today, bought a brand new viscous fan and pump, landed back later today and davy (my mechanic) fell to the sport (that had been parked since the fiasco yesterday)

new pump and fan on, we topped up the coolant, bled the system, and turned the key. Everything seemed to be running fine so my mechanic went for a spin round the block to double check the coolant process...

landed back into the lane and turned the car off immediately, told me the temp hand shot up very quickly... so up the bonnet went again.

He pointed out large areas of collision against the radiator, which leads me to believe that changing the rad will solve the problem but still skeptical... Davy (my mechanic) sed that if the radiator doesn't solve the problem the head has suffered damage, and will need fixed/replaced which he told me was rather expensive... this is my big fear as our next step was to remove the thermostat to alleviate any blockages in the coolant system - to which we found no stat, it had been removed by a previous owner...

although davy has advised me to remain calm as there are several factors working in my favour, in which case the radiator is causing the trouble...

p.s. new fan works great, far stronger blow than before

1. the passenger side of the radiator is warm and warms quickly when turned on, yet the drivers side of the radiator remains very cold, even when the water temp reaches high levels. which he believes could be a blockage in the rad

2. Davy recons if the gasket/head has gone, air bubbles will rise through the system when started from cold (something to do with pressure loss due to a done gasket/ cracked head, but I'm not 100% sure plz don't quote me on this). when observing the coolant bottle when starting from cold, no air bubbles appear until the water eventually becomes very warm and boils. which he sez is a good sign

4. There is no apparent loss of power or lagging in the engines running, all cylinders firing, same pull and acceleration etc

5. The radiator had suffered some kind of impact damage from the engine side...the damage covers quite a large area of the radiator fins


my hope is a blockage in the radiator, which is not allowing the water to circulate round and is causing the temperature to rise quickly when idling and traffic driving...

I'm kinda freakin out about this as I hadn't expected to be spending so much money so quicky on the car, as it stands i have had under a weeks happy driving since purchase and am scared that problems will continue


so before i go to the car tomorrow morning, can anybody give me any techniques at all on how to test for radiator blockage or faults? plus was wondering if anybody here came so close to a head repair and got off light with a new radiator?? for those who have been in that situation I empathise with u completely as i am basically one step away from this situation

sorry for the epilogue, but i thought i would be as accurate as possible (to my knowledge of mechanics)


If u've read this far, thank you for listenin
If ur thinking about replying, thanx you again

Sy

[craigieeb]

eye sounds like you'v got some prob's there mate,
to check if it is the radiator thats causing the problem, simply take it out of the car and empty it completly of any water that could be in there, lye it on the floor and stick a hose pipe in one end and see if water is going thru the radiator and comming out the other end,
if it turn's out to be the rad, im sure one of the lads on here can sort you a good one out for cheap enough

and make sure you put a 'new' thermostat in there mate

let us know how you get on

[Sy_325]

good man!

will let u know

thanx again

Sy

[craigieeb]

i forgot to say....
once the radiator has filled the water should come out at the same rate as it's going in

[Sy_325]

gotcha

[Sy_325]

hi guys...

out this morning and removed the radiator and ran the hose through it, its badly damaged but seems to be forcing water through rightly without leaks... turned car on after topping everything up.

10 mins standing watching everything, temp gauge eventually rose to half way. stayed pretty consistant but then just rose again ever so slightly and began to boil up again.

heaters vents all blowing cold air at this stage, would this be a problem with the heater matrix no?

hmmm...

I read in another thread someone left the system to bleed for nearly an hour, to ensure there was no airlock, has this been known to work?

thanx sy

[Sy_325]

anybody??

could somebody post up a pic of their 325i engine bay to double check that all the hoses are in the right place???

plz guys??

sy

[ed325i]

I would take the to hose off at the thermostat end and fill it up through the hose until it is full, put the hose back on make sure there is water in the coolant tank then start the engine and undo the bleed screw to let air out. Make sure the heater is hot if it is not you still have air in it. But there could be some thing alse wrong.

[Brianmoooore]

I would take the to hose off at the thermostat end and fill it up through the hose until it is full, put the hose back on make sure there is water in the coolant tank then start the engine and undo the bleed screw to let air out. Make sure the heater is hot if it is not you still have air in it. But there could be some thing alse wrong.

I should think about looking for a mechanic that knows what he's doing, before he wrecks your engine.
The heater blowing cold is the big clue. You have an airlock at the back of the engine/heater hose. Very common when refilling a 6 pot.
Fill the coolant tank to the brim and nearly pull off the heater hose where it goes through the bulkhead. You should get some air come out.
Putting a hand flat across the filler neck, pulling the overflow hose out from the wing, and blowing into it hard can help while you're doing this.

That's twice you've cooked the head - definitely pushing your luck.

[Brianmoooore]

Should have added - keep the heater to full hot while doing this, and check that the heater begins to blow warm within a couple of minutes of starting the engine. 325 heads don't like being cooked.

[Sy_325]

hi

was downstairs there and pulled off the hoses going into the bulkhead, there doesn't seem to be any air trapped back there, but does the engine have to be running when doing this check?

if this or a new radiator doesn't solve the problem then am gonna take the head off and have it looked at

thanx for all who have helped to this point

[Brianmoooore]

If the heater worked before and doesn't now, this is your problem, as any half competant mechanic should have known and checked, unless by some incredible coincidence, the heater valve has failed shut in the meantime.
Engine doesn't has to be running, but personally,(and dangerously), I run the engine , wait untill a little pressure has built up in the cooling system, then release the pipe.
Not a technique that "Health and Safety" would approve of.

[Sy_325]

Brian,

Thank you for your help, but i took ur advice and left the car to a guy who knows what he's doing!

thanx to all who replied, will let u know the outcome of this

thanx again

Sy

[Sy_325]

hey all,

took the car to someone "who knew what they were doing" and had the problem fixed within a matter of ten minutes...

system properly bled, car on... back to normal thank god

just thot I would post the outcome for future reference.

thanx for the advice guys

Sy

[elliot]

glad you got it sorted dude. whats the involvement on changing the viscous? reckon my needs doing
how many speeds should the fan have? mine seems to only have one no matter the temp.

[E30Mark]

glad you got it sorted dude. whats the involvement on changing the viscous? reckon my needs doing
how many speeds should the fan have? mine seems to only have one no matter the temp.

the fan speed varies with temperature, the viscosity of the oil inside the fan coupling regulates this, hence why its called a viscous coupling....

Easy change, get a 32mm spanner (Halfrauds, Ԛ£5) and undo the nut on the back of the viscous coupling, remember it's a left hand thread. i.e. standing from the front of the car turn the spanner clockwise. You need to shock the spanner to loosen the nut, i.e. hit it !

[elliot]

thanks mark
this may sound silly but the oil? is this a seperate oil or just whats in the engine?

also would i need to buy just the coupling when replacing?

apologies for the silly questions

[E30Mark]

The 'oil' is contained within the viscous coupling.

The viscous coupling comes as a complete sealed unit (including the oil)

They fail over time, oil breaks down or leaks out....

You just need to buy a 'viscous coupling' job done.

No such thing as a silly question, unless your asking your boss for a pay rise

[Ratfink]

If the rad has cold spots its blocked and needs recoring....ive had this problem on a manta, a viva and a consul. All of which the water flowed fine with a hose. Recore the rad problem solved!
Also just incase have you checked the thermostat isnt knackered and failed shut as it happened to my mates 325.
Hope this helps
Tom

[elliot]

The 'oil' is contained within the viscous coupling.

The viscous coupling comes as a complete sealed unit (including the oil)

They fail over time, oil breaks down or leaks out....

You just need to buy a 'viscous coupling' job done.

No such thing as a silly question, unless your asking your boss for a pay rise

thanks dude