Hi everyone, I'm wondering if anyone has any ideas of what to check before I get the car looked at by a garage. I'm a student and really can't afford to pay for expensive fault finding if I can do it myself.
I have noticed over the past few months a cooling problem with the car. I bought an N reg 306 TD in march this year.
1) Up until July the car has run fine, and the temperature gauage never went up above 80.... though I never saw the cooling fans come on.... then as the hot weather aproached the car would reach just under 90 (when stood) and still the fans didn't work. The fan motors are fine, I bridged those and they work fine.2) The coolant levels have been fine, until revently it has been intermittently losing coolant. I topped up since it lost around a litre of coolant over a few days, then bought some rad sealant and before i could use it, it took a number of weeks for the level to drop sufficiently to use it.
3) Recently the car has been intermittenly overhating. I was driving a short trip and the car was stood in traffic, the guage hit 90 and was hovering around 85 while moving, it never shot up to red, though I don't think the cooling fans were working either. The car currently fluctuates between 80 and 85 degrees, this is very unusual for the car normally. What is worrying is that the car, althought only registering 90 may be actually hotter, due to the fact that I could smell the rubber pipe work heating up from in the car.I am unsure what the problem actually is? People have suggested a faulty cooling fan switch.... though this wouldn't account for the fluctuations since the fans have never cut in? It has also been suggested that silt in the system is causing the problem. I have also noticed small crystalline deposits along the bottom corner of the radiator, obviously a small sign of seepage, though it is never actually wet, so I don't think its really going to be a problem just yet, though a replacement rad will be on my christmas list?
Does anyone have any suggestions before I take to a garage and have it looked at, has it happened to you?
Kind Regards Austin