R Ka2 water loss?

Hi all,

Daughter is still driving us about in her Ka (L plates) and so far so good.

We are still suffering the odd water loss I mentioned a while back but if anything it's even more unpredictable ... or not?

Pre going for a drive we would check the levels and let's say the coolant header tank was on Min. I would top it up to Max and off we would go. We have done between 5 and 50 miles, it's boiled over (once) and lost nothing at all (several times).

When we have come back to it after it's been run for a while,

*sometimes* there is water under the o/s/f (about level with the rad f/b and similar with the main hose from the water pump, l/r), often it's dry.

She dove it to my sisters NYE (25 miles) and back early NYD and I went to it this morning for the first time since and it's not lost a drop?

But something got me wondering, it seems better since it's been colder so I wonder if it's an overheating thing, as if the electric fan isn't coming on or is intermittent? I'm pretty sure it has come on (I've heard it and felt the revs drop in traffic etc) but as there is no temp gauge it's difficult to (easily) see when it should cut in or not. In the old days you could test the gauge by pulling / shorting the lead from the temp sender and test the sender in some hot water (like the thermostat) or just shorting the wires from the fan temp switch but I guess it's all computerised now? :-(

Questions then, would the fan on this be driven by the ECU and if so is there anything I can do to check (easily) that the fan is getting power or is there anything I could do with an input wire (temp sender?) to fool the ECU that the engine is hot and see if it turns the fan on (rather than just watching it get hot and possibly boil over etc)?

Are there any known issues with these Ka's before I start pointing and prodding please? :-)

Cheers, T i m

p.s. We have a new water pump and belt and will probably change that anyway as soon as we get a slot.

p.s. I still want to fit a temp gauge. ;-)

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T i m
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