Okay, long story short... well as short as possible. (Full story below but here it is in a nutshell...)
Sister has '95 Rover 100 and it lost heat in the passenger cabin in Dec
2002. She tells me in August 2003 and mentions a mechanic quoted £200-£300 in January to fix it.I flush, clean and refill the system at cost of parts only. Happy days, all working again and heat in the cabin.
Sometime later (weeks) she leaves expansion tank cap off for unknown length of time. Forgets to refit it after diy maintenance. Car overheats (naturally) and needs to be topped off again.
I trickle in water and coolant to avoid shock to engine block. Engine temp gauge reads normal when engine gets up to temp, Fan comes on when temp rises as car idles.
No heat in the cabin again. I think there's an airlock somewhere but I'm not able to locate it. Tried bleeding the upper tube going into the cabin unit but I only get water / steam (coolant mix) when engine is running. When engine is stopped, there is no water / steam at the bleed valve.
I suspect I may have to force water through cabin unit again. Not looking forward to it.
Any other ideas please?
TIA
Keith
P.S. Have tried putting contract out on sister but no takers, ha ha! ;o)
Okay, full story below - it's a saga...
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Dec 2002, my sister's Rover 100 loses heating in passenger cabin.
She talks to a mechanic who quotes £200-£300 to fix it, dash off, replace unit, dash on, refill, test, etc.
Sister ignores problem for 8 months. Start of August, engine temp gauge shows overheating. No fan operation. Sister tells me about car and about mechanic. I tell her what parts and fluids, etc. to get.
I spend next day flushing old fluids out (none of this 'dash off - dash on'), use a cleaner fluid to do a good job in the system. Remove thermistor and clean the calcified rubbish off it. Flush twice and refill with correct water / coolant mix.
Run engine up to temp, cabin heats up, let it idle, fan comes on.
Sister lives 20 miles away so she's given instructions to check water level next morning and top up to indicated mark.
Okay. That was start of August.
Two weeks ago, she's driving home after midnight and calls to say that the car has overheated again and she's turned off the engine.
I head out with tow bar, coolant and water to investigate.
The expansion tank lid is missing. She tells me she took it off to top up the tank and forgot to put it back on again. Not sure how long it's been off. Call it luck or whatever but expansion tank lid is found caught in some wiring near the headlamp.
Very slowly and carefully I add some coolant and then some water to the expansion tank over 60 minutes so as to reduce the effects of thermal shock to the engine.
I start the engine and let it run up to temp. Fan works but no heat in the cabin. I continue to trickle in water and coolant.
Expansion tank empties and I reach over to bleed the hose going into the cabin. All valves are open to let in the heat from the engine. No heat. I trickle in more water and coolant.
Okay, nearly two hours have gone by and suddenly there is heat in the cabin. Happy days.
Sister followed home with instructions to check / top-up the water level the next day and to make arrangements to be at my house that weekend to get a routine maintenance check done - no more diy.
Sister ignores advice, arrives at house complaining car is cold again. Hasn't had heat for two weeks.
Present Day... what could be the cause? How can I cure it?