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Peugeot 306 DT Cooling

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

Reply to
Austin
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Firstly you need to check if the fans are actually switching on or not. Get the car up to normal operating temperature then leave it ticking over with the bonnet open. Its unlikely you will hear the fans coming on from inside the car with the bonnet closed anyway - these cars tend to have fairly quiet fans, but a relatively noisey engine with lots of sound deadening, so its hard to hear the fans above that. Keep an eye on the temp guage and see how hot it gets before/if the fans come on.

I'm afraid rad sealant is probably the worst thing you could have done, it will do more harm than good on PSA diesels.

It could be the rad sealant causing this, it tends to clog up the waterways which leads to overheating, then possible head gasket problems. Having said that, 90 degrees isn't actually overheating for these engines. My Xantia TD (same engine) goes up to 90 in hot weather when stood in traffic, but the fans bring it down to about 82 once they come on. The fact that your car has only recently started getting to these temperatures is worrying though.

Silt seriously reduces the efficiency of the cooling system. The seepage from the bottom of the rad suggests that the rad could well be silted and corroded up, and due for replacement. The radiators on these don't last for much more than 6-7 years or so anyway. I had the same symptoms on a BX diesel (same engine again), the rad didn't look too bad when it was on the car but when I removed it, it virtually fell apart, dumping a couple of pints of blue/green gunge on the floor. The new rad cured the overheating and water loss problems. If you do replace it, flush the cooling system too. This will remove most of the rest of the gunge and hopefully the radweld.

Nick

Reply to
Nick Read

Thanks for that,

The radiator finally bust today, so it looks like I can get it replaced. Its gobbling a litre of coolant every trip, its had the blue crystals across the bottom 3rd of the rad for a while, but i took it out yesterday and they went all along the bottom, and by the time i'd got home, white deposits were forming on the 1st 3rd of the radiator to go.

The cooling fans I have finally managed to catch working, so I know they are in tact. I'm gonna have a new radiator put on, along with an engine flush. That should sort it out.

Kind Regards Austin

Reply to
Austin

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