the temperature guage keeps raising on every journey even short ones. i am also having to fill the coolant tank every journey give or take. there is no leak however i think there is air in the pipes as the big pipe coming forward is soft when engine is running. there is no 'mayo' in the oil cap, i looked into bleeding it but cannot find the lower bleed valve, is it idential to the one over the drivers headlight? this valve is also very hard to get off should it be?

any help would be apprecieated
thanks
kimbo

The one at the passenger headlight is the lower one. The other one is on the bulkhead on the pipes leading to the heater.

However not all cars haver the upper one.

Yes, its stiff to undo, but you must undo it and bleed the system properly.

If you don't know how to bleed it search through this section, there's been a few threads on the subject.

Cheers

PD

thanks i got it wrong i found the one nr drivers headlight no idea where the other one is. i started pulling it out is was very stiff then i bottled out. does it need to be all the way out as in not in the car but in your hand or just so that the end bit is in the pipe?

kimbo

Water should pass without having to completely remove the screw, but its better to take it right out.

Cheers

PD

is it ok to bleed it with just the top valve open and not the other one which i cannot find. a detailed description of where it is would be appreciated.

thanks

The one you have found is the bottom one.

The top one is on the bulkhead, thats the bit between the driver and the engine, covered in carpet. It is the pipe going to the heater.

If its not there, there isn't one fitted.

Cheers

PD

mine never really overheated. it just use to reach high temperatures. what i did was flush the coolant as in the expansion tank there was the colour of rush (brownish) and bleed it well. what i did as people told me here, you fill up the expansion tank till its very max, blow air with your mouth in it while you have one bleeder open and the other one closed and vice-versa. you close the bleeders when coolant comes out. keep on blowing and open the other bleeder and close it when coolant comes out. when you have done that, fill up the expansion tank and close. start the car and open both bleeders. coolant is suppose to come out from the first bleeder which on the drives side. close that bleeder when coolant comes out like tap water, with no bubbles and no spitting. close that bleeder and go on to the next bleeder which at the top. this bleeder is of the heater matrix. the same procedure and close when coolant comes out like in the first bleeder.

after all this test when the fan kicks in and for long it stays on.

thanks for all of the advice. got a friend to bleed engine which went fine however when i got in car to go home it struggled to start, when it did start it started chugging the stalled lasted all of 20 seconds on even with high revs on.

he looked under car and said the "cat" was glowing red so turned it off. about 2hours later tried it again got round block in 1st gear about 10 mph but it was wanting to stall.

seems to be one thing after another
please help

Are any of the warning lights on

-immediately after the engine is started from cold, and
-do any come on later

Noel

bit of crud in the injector, or fuel pipe somewhere causing major fuel starvation. Must be running lean to get the cat glowing, ive only every seen my exhaust headers glow after 10mins of rolling road thrashing

The little ingector red light should be on an you shoud be pushing the car home not givving it welli.

Noel

who me?

ok the injection light (the one with the sparks coming out of the end) does keep coming on.
i didnt give it welly i left it a friends house looking at it now any suggestions??
it is staying on still chugging a bit but not stalling. when i tried to reverse it off drive it just stalled
help!!!!

The most common reason would be a bad spark plug or bad spark plug wire. If the spark doesn't work there is no combustion in that cylinder and the raw unburned fuel goes out the exhaust pipe where the cat burns, since it's burning too much fuel it glows red hot this this is very damaging to the cat.

Brooky said:

bit of crud in the injector, or fuel pipe somewhere causing major fuel starvation. Must be running lean to get the cat glowing, ive only every seen my exhaust headers glow after 10mins of rolling road thrashing

Click to expand...

Could be you could try

- new injector
- or soaking the injector in neat redex, overnight

I'd go for new

Noel

or save abit of cash and try a working spare. remove the bob or air box and check theres fuel coming out(when running)

thanks for that, i can change those no probs.
any suggestions if theres no improvement after that?

There is a filter in the petrol line between the tank and the pump when was it serviced?

Noel

Have you checked spark plugs? as a misfire can produce a variety of symptoms including hard starting, rough idle, hesitation, a drop in fuel economy and a big jump in hydrocarbon emissions, it could be down to spark plugs, bad plug wires, a weak coil, dirty injectors, a misfire can also causes the cat to glow cherry red.