Evening folks,

Wonder if i can pick your brains again?

My daughter has a Seicento S 1.1litre 02 plate.

I had a few issues with the cooling system way back in November 2012 but got it sorted with some great help and advice from the forum.

However....

The heater is blowing cold again, have bled the system and topped it back up and got it blowing hot again. Two days later it is blowing cold again. Coolant level is fine.

Last time there was reference to the 'cock' possibly needing cleaning / replacing but i am not sure where that is.

Any thoughts, help and guidance?

Thanks in anticipation

Paul

More likely than the cock is a water leak (water out/air in).

The old enemies are the water pump, water rail, and water rail O ring.

Often you'll only be able to see the leak when the coolant is pressurised (car well up to temperature), the engine running, and from under the car.

Many thanks for the reply.

Is this something i can sort myself or am i best booking it into my local garage?

Thanks again for the quick answers

Paul

The water pump is a bit tricky, but the others are pretty easy. First step, find the leak, report back!

Thanks for this, really appreciated.

Have just checked on the car again and the coolant has gone down again to below the minimum level. Put the car up on my old wheel ramps (found them neglected at the back of the shed from years ago)

Ran the car up to heat as suggested, radiator cooling fan kicked in.

Checked underneath the car for any signs of leakage, nothing.

Bled the system, eventually got hot coolant from the bleed pipe by the headlight but only cold from the bleed pipe on the bulk head.

Heater still blowing cold.

Checked all round the car and found no signs of any leakage.

Bleed the system again, still cold.

Gave up on bleeding the system as it didn't seem to make much difference.

Coolant level has gone down from max to mid way between max and low.

Felt reservoir tank and felt cold even though car had been running for over half an hour.

Carefully took top off (i know i shouldn't) and felt coolant inside, it was cold.

Most strange.

Any thoughts?

Does the Seicento have a thermostat like in the old cars? Could it be that that is preventing the system getting hot?

If the 'cock' is faulty what fault would it cause?

Let me know your thoughts.

Many thanks to you and the Forum for once again coming to my rescue.

Cheers

Paul

Does the Seicento have a thermostat like in the old cars? Could it be that that is preventing the system getting hot?

Click to expand...

Yes, unless some fool has removed it. If it's stuck open, the engine will take forever to get hot. If it's stuck shut it'll overheat very quickly.

If cock is faulty, generally it'll simply not get hot (ever) or stay hot.

Ming has a similar problem.

Thanks for that.

Next update...

Daughter has taken the car back to Northampton Uni tonight, a drive of approx an hour.

On leaving the M1 junction the amber engine light on the dash came on and stayed on.

As she arrived at her digs the radiator cooling fan came on.

When she rang me panicking she said the car didn't smell hot and seemed to behaving as per normal, i suggested she give it a couple of hours and check on the engine light, she did and it is still on.

Looking through the forum for answers it seems that the engine light means many things.

Do you think it will be ok to run the car with the amber engine warning light on for short local trips during the week and then the return drive to Nottingham on Thursday when i will get it booked in with my local garage or should i be trying to find a garage in Northampton who can sort it asap this week without ripping me off?

Thanks again for all the help.

Paul

If the coolant and oil levels are OK, she's probably OK to run it.

Chances are that there's someone local to Northampton with a code reader, here, though -- might give more time for diagnosis, etc. (I'm assuming MPI Sei).

get an OEM thermostat or good quality 3rd party and drive to Nottingham and drain coolant and replace thermostat

don't over torque bolts smear paper gasket with instant gasket from tube

cheap ones fail.

with new thermostat fitted run auto at tick over until fan kicks in and goes out.

drive home

Thanks for the reply Fingers99 and PepO

Great help.

Sounds to me my best option is to grab a new thermostat from Nottingham and head down to Northampton tonight / tomorrow night and replace it on the side of the road, thanks to you guys it sounds pretty straight forward (famous last words )

With regards to thermostats, PepO said get a OEM or good quality 3rd Party thermostat, how can i tell what is good and what isn't?

Currently i have found four different makes of thermostat with various costs: Quinton Hazell Thermostat, a Gates Thermostat, a Facet Thermostat and a Circoli Thermostat, the first three are all online so would need ordering, the fourth one is available locally from Euro Car Parts.

Sorry to be a pain but any advice would be really appreciated.

Thanks again for this

Paul

I'd get one from FIAT (or eurocarcare.net or Shop4Parts). Of the ones up there, I'd avoid QH and never heard of Circoli.

And the one week I'm not in Northampton, would be this week, sorry.

Cheers

D

Many thanks to all on the forum for posting replies, really helps.

Have ordered a new thermostat from Eurocarcare.net, grabbed the last Febi bilstein ECC7589135, hope it's ok

Will get some coolant and gasket glue tomorrow from Halfords and then i'm ready when the part turns up.

Daughter says amber engine light has now gone off and car seems to be behaving itself although still blowing cold.

Will see what difference changing the thermostat makes and go from there.

Thanks again so much for all the help, the forum is an excellent place and you are all so helpful.

Paul

Sorry all, one more thing...

As i haven't got the car here to check...

Am i correct to assume that the hose connected to the thermostat will be secured by a Fiat style jubilee clip and will therefore need removing?

Can anyone tell me what size of clip i need to get to replace it?

Apologies for being so 'needy'

Promise that will be it, for now anyways.

Cheers

Paul

the thermostat comes in a ducting so you can get a hose clip from 1st factor you drive past by waving ducting

might be a OEM Fiat clamp as you can reuse them...

Many thanks for that, will take a look

Cheers

Many thanks for this, will take a look and see what i need.

Cheers

Paul

just a thought reading through this... Have you got the heater set to fully hot when your bleeding the system, the heater part of the circuit usually won't bleed properly unless its set to hot.

Evening all,

Thanks so much for everyones input on this.

A bit of an update along with a further request for any advice.

Daughter brought her car home this weekend so i could fit the replacement thermostat. She left Northampton with everything appearing normal, checked Oil & Coolant levels (apparently even checked the windscreen washer) before setting off, all found ok.

As she left the A46 (with about 10mins left to go) the amber engine light came on, as she pulled onto our driveway the radiator fan kicked in.

Saturday i pulled the bottom hose, removed the two bleed screws (bulk head & headlight), took off the header tank cap and drained the system. Flushed the system with clean water to ensure the coolant was out.

Removed the old thermostat, which unknown to me had already been modified, the valve itself had already been taken out :-( Not what i was expecting. Fitted the new (complete) thermostat along with paper gasket and beeds of gasket glue.

Refitted the hoses & bleed screws and refilled the system with new coolant and bled the air out of it with the heater set to full (thanks blu73).

Although i hadn't really 'fixed anything' just replaced what 'should have' already been there, for some mad reason we started getting hot air blowing from the heater, i left the car ticking over and eventually the radiator fan kicked in and out, no amber engine light, sorted!

I got my daughter to take the car out for a test run (with me as passenger :-() and all went well, heater working, no engine light.

This morning, just before she left to go back to Northampton Uni, i checked the coolant levels, all still good, and started the car up to check all was ok, let it warm up, switched on the heater, cold air! No! What?
Checked the bleeds, all good, still cold air, gave up :-(

Daughter drove to Northampton, heater still cold but no amber engine light so kind of sorted but not quite.

So, what do i try next? Is it the 'cock'? Is there a way i can prove it? or is it time i handed the car over to my local garage to sort?

Any advice would be very much appreciated.

Thanks for reading

Paul

without the thermostat internals they just don't get very hot, i've driven on the motorway like that and it never gets upto operating temp. with that much air flowing over the rad; but they do get warm in town sitting in traffic but it takes ages.. I'd be tempted to fit a temperature gauge, there is a 'how to' in the guides - fitted the way in the guides you can see if the stat is working properly too (that will make sense when you read the guide).

Sounds like you may have 'cock' issues but somehow i never had this problem in all these years but sure someone who has will be along shortly.