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Austin/Rover high temperature warning light.

Just bought myself a Maestro 1.3 "A" Series. (Stop laughing at the back) This has been fitted with the instruments from a Montego with the rev counter and "high engine temperature warning light".

I drove this car home a distance of 140 miles. Ran perfectly. Well, as perfectly as a Maestro can. Made a stop at my mother's house and put the ignition on as I went to move the car down the drive and had the high temperature warning light flashing at me. The temperature gauge itself was only half way up the scale. The car ran up the motorway at a quarter to a third of the way up the temperature gauge scale.

I immediately checked the coolant level, it was absolutely fine. As was the oil level. On making my way home I got stuck in some football traffic at some traffic lights for five minutes. Temperature gauge went up to half way mark and the high temperature warning light started to flash.

I was about to turn the heater to hot and the heater fan up when the engine revs dropped a couple of hundred rpm and the gauge started to fall. Cooling fan on I assumed. I turned the heater on to help it cool down anyway. The needle fell back to about at third of the way up and the light went out. The car then ran down the road perfectly.

So, all you Maestro/Montego owners. (Are there any left?) Why does the light flash at the half way mark? If the gauge kept going up does it eventually stop flashing and stay on as some petrol warning lights do as you run out? Why does it start flashing shortly before the cooling fan kicks in too?

I imagine that I could find this a right pain in the arse when stuck in a traffic queue.

Reply to
gazzafield
Loading thread data ...

Bwhahahahahahaahahahahahahahahaahahahaha.....

I was laughing at the front.

Reply to
Steve Firth

There's only four true Maestros:

MG Maestro 1600 R Series... complete with twin twin webers as standard. :-D MG Maestro Turbo Maestro D Maestro TD

Anything else is a poor substitute. ;-)

Any idea why?

What I remember about these is that the ECU / temperature gauge / auto choke (if fitted - doubtful this far down the line), are more integrated than on most other stuff, or at least stuff of that time.

It's probably down to the ECU sending signals to the instrument panel which, given it has a rev counter, almost certainly was designed for a

1.6 Montego or above - different engine, totally different ECU.

What would concern me more is the way the temperature seems to rise by quite a bit going by what you've said above - most Maestro / Montego TDs ended up dead with a fecked overheated head, due to the cooling system losing its efficiency as it got older, and in the main this was normally down to the rad becoming clogged / cooling fins perishing meaning it wasn't dispersing the heat as efficiently as it should.

HTH - I still have a bit of a soft spot for Maestros... and I really shouldn't. ;-)

-- JackH

Reply to
jackhackettuk

More laughs available at

formatting link
- good place to go for a shoulder to cry on ;-) / get accurate technical advice on these, too. :-)

-- JackH

Reply to
jackhackettuk

Cos you're using the wrong sender unit for the gauge so the gauge is underreading.

Reply to
Conor

Take the British Leyland Maestro to a scrap yard & leave it there.

Reply to
Ray Shafranski

On Mon, 8 Oct 2007 17:23:01 +0100, I waved a wand and this message magically appears in front of Ray Shafranski:

I'd say yes but the 2.0 turbo diesel variant's pretty good.

Reply to
Alex Buell

a Maestro 1.3 "A" Series. (Stop laughing at the back)

"Thank you for that... it was both interesting and informative"

-- JackH

Reply to
jackhackettuk

It was in it's day. Comapred to something more modern it's very laggy, noisy, and smoky.

Reply to
Chris Bartram

Thanks, I shall do that right away.

Reply to
gazzafield

On Wed, 10 Oct 2007 12:34:41 +0100, I waved a wand and this message magically appears in front of Chris Bartram:

500 quid for something that's quite reliable has to be a good buy - at least that's what Dad says.
Reply to
Alex Buell

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