All,

As some of you know my daughter got a 1.2 Lounge and just completed the list of things to do and on the road last week.

The car had a leak from the thermostat housing so i dropped the fluids and replaced the housing, sealed up properly and refit hoses using correct clips.

Bled system through vent next to brake master reservoir and all good.

Now - on Saturday she was idling the car for 40 minute ( dont ask!!!!!!!!!!!:bang and the temp light came on. She immediately stopped the car and rang me - .

Talked her through and found a slight leak was on the passenger side of the car on the underneath but still loads of coolant in the reservoir.

Started car no light so she drove home.

Yesterday noted signs of the coolant leak from around the thermostst housing ( sigh). Cleaned it all off and started the car and let idle up for an hour in the garage. Checked for air in system - none. Heater on full at high heat and ran perfect. No leak at all and car sat at water temp at half way for a good 30 minutes. ????

Anyone any ideas - im thinking strip and refit the thermostst to be on the safe side .

As a side not checked the oil - no signs of mayo or increase in level and coolant crystal pink - im not thinking any head gasket issues.

PS i noted all the time he car was in idle the additional cooling fan on the rad never kicked in - is this normal anyone know how to test the fan at all ?

Thanks in advance - cars a little cracker otherwise just dont want to risk any engine issues through coolant.

TTR said:

PS i noted all the time he car was in idle the additional cooling fan on the rad never kicked in - is this normal anyone know how to test the fan at all ?

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With the car stationary, warmed up and at idle, turn the A/C on full - the fan should kick in quite soon.

If the fan isn’t kicking in, there’s your problem. If you have access to MES you can run a test that activates the low speed and high speed fan. I imagine the resistor on the fan is broken. Right hand side near the top is the electrical connection, held on by one 8mm bolt. Take it out and have a look. Usually comes adrift one side. Can be soldered or pick up a good one on eBay. Sometimes it’s as cheap to buy a secondhand fan complete with resistor than just the resistor on it’s own.

typecastboy said:

If the fan isn’t kicking in, there’s your problem.

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Don't be too quick to assume it isn't working; my fan rarely kicks in in normal use unless the A/C is running - though it's also unusual for me to sit in stationary traffic.

JR:-

Cheers will try the AC route to see if i get anything on the fan

Typecastboy

No access to MES, plus i hate £loo%y electrics to boot - give me a spanner any day

Will see if i can figure out from your description which and what part and will photo and post to check before i start taking apart. ( if test above with AC does not work)

Also do a trawl on't web to see about a part / whole fan assembly to be on safe side.

Still cannot fathom the leak out though unless its the seal failing on the stat housing i put in but im sure i sealed it up correctly ( done loads in past ok).

Thanks fop input so far big help, cant settle with her driving around far until i find the fault / weep .

TTR said:

cant settle with her driving around far until i find the fault / weep .

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That's a good policy - the 1.2 is particularly intolerant of being run with low coolant and many times the head gasket will fail before the overtemperature warning light comes on.

The cooling system generally seems rather fragile; there are a lot of posts reporting problems in this area. A shame, because the 1.2 is otherwise a bulletproof engine with an excellent reliability record.

There’s a non genuine one for £13.99 here.

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/292387597558

Or genuine one for £26.99 here

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/272742592072

There doesn’t seem to be any used fans around at the moment but if you buy a new fan it will come without the resistor I believe.

typecastboy

Cheers for that pal - i was just looking at the very same and wondering it if was right.

Do i need to remove the fan pack completely - looks like one bolt holding it on ??
It looks like the resistors at the bottom of the fan ?
Assume its plug and play ?

Cheers big help

Resistor is at the top on the right. The top electrical connection. You don’t need to remove the fan.

Fan has two bolts one side and then pulls out from two tabs but absolutely no need to take it out.

jrkitching said:

Don't be too quick to assume it isn't working; my fan rarely kicks in in normal use unless the A/C is running - though it's also unusual for me to sit in stationary traffic.

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To be fair, if the overheating light came on, there's a problem. The engine should never overheat, since the fan ought to come on, then go to high speed if it's too hot.

Ovbiously you can get overheating when the fan is not at fault (it can only do so much, if there is low coolant or a knackered pump) but generally if the fan works, there's coolant in there and the pump and thermostat are good, then you should never see the warning light.


Ralf S.

ralfs

I was surprised too given the findings on Sunday morning in my garage:-

I was fearing the worse but to the best of my checking:-

Coolant reservoir nicely underneath Max
Coolant mix spot on with correct fluid
Coolant colour fine
Signs of a weep around the new stat housing but nothing to suggest a major leak
Oil level fine
No leaks after running for upto i hour on tickover in garage, temp reading stayed rock sold at half way, only comment was the fan not coming on
Inlet & outlet pipes normal
No air in system
Heater hot


Could be the water pump i guess but as i appear top be getting the circulation i am doubting it and surely it would have:-

Shown signs on the engine temperate gauge in the garage on tickover as no water circulating.
Hoses top and bottom would have been different temperatures
Heater cold / cooler than normal


Hence im confused what triggered the sensor to light and why no fan cutting in and why did the leak/seep spring up all of a sudden ( increase in pressure perhaps ?)

Keep the thoughts coming it all helps - im really tempted as a first stage to swap out the resistor on the fan, for £15.00 its a no brainer (even to a tight yorkshireman

cheers all

Do both cooling fans work with the a.c. to cold?
Check if fans come on when hot with the heating set to off, otherwise there maybe sufficient cooling, provided by heating to the cabin to prevent them coming on?
The water after standing still, not from a.c. drain?

John202020

my daughter did not have the ac on and described the colour of the fluid to a tee - pink.

No idea on the fans or which come on first / last but will run the test with heater to off and see what occurs - good idea.

Guess i was focused on if it was a major leak / HG issue yesterday more than owt - should have applied that logic after the initial hour.

TTR said:

John202020

my daughter did not have the ac on and described the colour of the fluid to a tee - pink.

No idea on the fans or which come on first / last but will run the test with heater to off and see what occurs - good idea.

Guess i was focused on if it was a major leak / HG issue yesterday more than owt - should have applied that logic after the initial hour.

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Ideally the AC should be "always on"?
Check the bleed screw for leaks but be extremely careful with the bleed screw, I snapped ours requiring entire pipe replacement.
Check for leaks whilst heating up, not all leaks can be seen when fully hot.
Re check the thermostat sealing like you said.
Aside,,, the metal coolant pipe running behind the exhaust manifold(above oil filter) can be severely corroded whilst looking fine, the screwdriver went through ours on checking so replaced. Also our car required a new heater matrix due to leaking into the cabin.

Turn your heater on to cold,as the interior fan will cool the engine water and may stop the engine fan from cutting in.

TTR said:

ralfs

I was surprised too given the findings on Sunday morning in my garage:-

I was fearing the worse but to the best of my checking:-

Coolant reservoir nicely underneath Max
Coolant mix spot on with correct fluid
Coolant colour fine
Signs of a weep around the new stat housing but nothing to suggest a major leak
Oil level fine
No leaks after running for upto i hour on tickover in garage, temp reading stayed rock sold at half way, only comment was the fan not coming on
Inlet & outlet pipes normal
No air in system
Heater hot


Could be the water pump i guess but as i appear top be getting the circulation i am doubting it and surely it would have:-

Shown signs on the engine temperate gauge in the garage on tickover as no water circulating.
Hoses top and bottom would have been different temperatures
Heater cold / cooler than normal


Hence im confused what triggered the sensor to light and why no fan cutting in and why did the leak/seep spring up all of a sudden ( increase in pressure perhaps ?)

Keep the thoughts coming it all helps - im really tempted as a first stage to swap out the resistor on the fan, for £15.00 its a no brainer (even to a tight yorkshireman

cheers all

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I think if you get the fan (resistor?) fixed so that it comes on when the car is hot then you can assume the car is fixed (at least until the next problem).

I'm impressed the car idled for an hour without the fan coming on and without overheating... but these days "idle" is very lean for emissions reasons, so I guess the car didn't produce too much heat, so it could control the cooling itself on the thermostat and just using the radiator.

I think your daughter overheated the car because she actually drove it, then stopped and remained stationary for such a long time with the engine running, so she had the additional heat soak.

Without the fan the car would overheat and that would cause pressure. Normally pressure vents through the reservoir cap but you can get coolant forced out at any weak spots; maybe the thermostat housing but also any hoses, radiator, pipes etc. If you can see pink traces around the thermostat, check the hoses on it and then the gasket face. It might also be one of the coolant hoses to the heater maybe.

If it's not a constant drip/or wet then it migth be a one-off... and coolant crystalises in air so leaks tend to seal themselves anyway, so just have a look every now and again until the coolant level doesn't change any more.

If the fan is working, she shouldn't be able to overheat it again, no matter what she does.


Ralf S.

ralfs

Eh up.

Your thoughts are like mine re the pressure build, given the trace leak around the thermostat housing on Sunday its clear there was a weep, where from is another matter as i could not tell.

Given heater blower on full it would dissipate the heat build in the engine so may account for no fan - either way i would have expected it to trip in but cannot judge the water temp thats needed to trip it on.

Last night i pulled the resistor off, squirted the connectors with elec cleaner and plugged in/out a few times just to see if it may be a faulty connection. I will see if the fan comes on and daughter knows what to listen for . Coolant level was where it sat on Sunday, temp at half way and no sign of a weep around the housing.:bang:

Lets see if i can get fan working at least ( thats if its not - as not managed enough time to test with AC on yet)

I am going to sort this one way or another - with all the help on here it at least gives me a sounding board and other ideas

cheers all - i will keep this thread updated in case it helps others.

Eh up all.

Well it happened again :bang: but at least she had the common sense to be aware.

She drove the car in moderate traffic for 20 mins last night
Stopped with car on idle talking on phone - 10 mins ( pulled over in a driveway)
In friends house and out and back in car talking with engine on tickover, engine sat as normal at 1/2 temp range
Noticed temp gauge risen to 3/4 range - but no temp warning light
She switched car off straight away opened bonnet to let it cool
She spotted the weep from p3$$ing thermostat housing area which i told her to look for
Checked water level in coolant reservoir by putting torch on phone next to column, all ok
Drove home car sat at 1/2 all way

Also no fan came on at 3/4 temp range at all - im beginning to think we have two issues here.

The weep needs sorting out
Im not convinced the cars fan is working now

So will be ordering resistor today
also need to order some more anti freeze - love cars dont you:bang:

all advice welcome - will keep you all posted

Faulty (new) thermostat/housing?

John202020

could be but seep appears to be on the mating face, but really difficult to tell, as you know its a sod to get to see properly unless you strip out the battery and battery carrier

im edging my bets that the hymlor blue has not quiet sealed itself

water under pressure, especially hot, is very searching so will find any weak spot

could be a fault in the casting or, pipe connection but i nipped these all on Sunday