General 105 JTD Temperature concerns

[pleinichen]

Hi,
Having had my Marea JTD for a week or so now, i am getting used to it's quirks (all used cars have them!).
The one that's currently puzzling me (and slightly concerning me - have i bought another lemon???), is this:

The car has climate control (the auto setting on the fan) and with the temperature set at the first notch above minimum the car gets really warm inside (almost like it's up on about 27/28 degs).
However the engine temp gauge is just above normal (middle) by between half and one notch - ie. it's not looking like it's running hot.

i'm not certain when (or if) the head gasket has been changed and the car has done 103k miles, it's a 1999 105 JTD Weekend.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Also got that "Fiat Clunk" from the front suspension, on researching this on hear it seems to be a simple case of bushes - having done a quick search of eBay there seems to be a chioce of "front lower arms" or "front wishbones", both looking totally different.
The noise is whne going over smaller bumps / potholes and is almost like a secondary bump to the suspension - it's not on the inital 'bump' but seems to be a second bounce.

Which bits do i need to change and how easy a job is it (bearing in mind that i don't have a trusty Haines manual yet!)?

Thanks in advance.

 

[richardwp]

My Marea's just starting to get the Fiat clunk too at 78K (51 plate). Does it need urgent attention or would it be safe to leave to next service in another 6000 miles?
As to the temp, do you have a 'LO' setting and does it blow hot on that setting too? I don't have a temperature problem with mine but I do find that sometimes 'Auto' is 'Off' and 'Off' is 'Auto on', so I just set it to whichever setting decides to be the operative one at the time! Good old Magnetti Marelli Lol.

 

[pleinichen]

Hi Richard,
From what i can tell it won't do any really harm to keep driving with the "klunk" but it's advisable to change as soon as is realistic (if anyone else knows any better please feel free to step in, i'm certainly no expert - i just drive 'em!). The steering may become a little sloppy and the ride certainly won't be as good as it should, i am also starting to notice a little more understeer especially on roundabouts.

As for the temperature on mine, it still blows cold on the min setting (or as cold as can be expected considering the aircon needs a recharge). The other fan settings all seem to work as they should, including the 'off' setting.
On driving home from work today the temp gauge sat exactly on half way and the fan temps seemed just right at about 22 - just pleasant at this time of year. But this morning i had it down on 18 for the 1st 20 mins of the journey and it was getting too hot and stuffy in the car so i had to set it to min - also the temp gauge was that extra notch up.
Additionally, and i'm not sure if this is something of a quirk about these cars, but it seems to reach temperature almost quicker than my little YRV did and that was only a 1.3 petrol - in my experience, diesels usually take much longer to reach temperature (certainly does in the missus' Renault Scenic DCi). It seems to take about 2 or 3 miles to reach temp - and that's in this weather?!?

Any suggestions? Or failing that, do any of the lovely people at Fiat want to fit one of those new JTD 188BHP Twin Turbo engines to my car - just for test purposes of course (i'd be happy to write you a lovelly report and review!):worship:

 

[johnson550]

Re: 105 JTD Clunk

Best to check the drop links first easiest and cheapest to fix then probably go to the wishbones