Hi guys im new to forum and have read a little about the problem im having.

here goes, i have a fiat brava 1.4s 96 , bought the car few years back and have had nothing but trouble first of all the clutch relese plate went (£200), then the front diff on gearbox went (£300), then the engine had to be replaced (£600) after that my partner said we aint spending nothing else on the pice of sh%t, which is fair enuf but recently my car has developed a problem - it overheats after running for about 10 mins this seems really strange as the reconditioned engine os only 6 months old and has only done just less than 2k.

a friend claims it could be the thermostat and may be really cheap to repair.

any info on where to locate the thermostat and how technical the repair is going to be would be greatly appreciated.

yeah could be the thermostat.
1 does the cooling fan come on?
2 silly i know but is the coolant topped up,if so does it 'use' coolant?
3 when the engines running does the radiator & pipes going to the radiator get hot?
4 do you still get hot air from the heater in the car?

1. no fan dosnt come one
2. yeah plenty coolant
3. not sure, bit scared to run the motor(dont want it to fry)
4. yeah i still get hot air

okay then.if the fans not coming on its one of two possible things
1 the thermostat isnt opening to let the hot water to the rad'
2 you have a problem with you're fan/wiring

thx for reply , how would i go about checking if the fan/wiring is faulty?

had a look today and cant seem to see where the thermostat sits.
can somone tell me where it is??

The 'stat sits on the right of the engine block as you look at it from the front.

ok turns out heaters are not blowing hot air. took thermostat out and stuck it in hot water not sure what to look for,

Hi Rossfstan,

I had lots of fun and games when I changed my thermostat during the past two weeks. These great guys on this forum helped me out no end. You may have seen my posts "Injector Warning Light / Temp Gauge Probs".

I have just changed thermostat on my brava 1.4. My problem is the engine always registered cold (rather than hot). I found that my old thermostat was stuck open (about a 1mm gap all round) at room tempeature. When I heat it up in water, just near boiling point, it starts to open even more, so effectively water circulating round through the radiators all the time.

If you think your engine is overheating, maybe your thermostat is stuck closed. Boil it in water and you'll find out.

As far as I have learnt, the themostat should be fully closed at the end where the top radiator hose connects (at room temperature). It should not let any water through that section. When you boil it in water it should start to open (suppose to be ~88°C but I had no means to measure mine), and thus start to let water through that section of pipe (to the radiator). If you let it cool down again, that section should get closed up again.

To test the fan, disconnect the cooling fan switch and basically short out the connector to make the circuit. I used a short piece of wire with blade crimps and a pair of pliers to help insert them. BECAREFUL, you stand well clear of the fan, the +12V is ALWAYS LIVE (I tested this out with a voltmeter !), so if your fan works, it will spin immediately !!!

Before you go into all this, check that you have not got air locks in the system. I had air locks in my system when I refilled my coolant. I noticed both no heat through heat blowers and engine temp went way up past the 50% mark.

Hope this helps. Good Luck !!!

Bleed the system and when i hopped back in the motor the heaters were blowing hot air . took it for a spin and everything seems back to normal. also let it tic over and radiator fan kicked in just over half way on temp gauge on dash.

thx guys

Thanks for the feedback chuck and Rossfstan. Its always nice to hear about problems being fixed.

hi there i'm from Bulgaria and i have a bravo td100. My problem is the same - the radiator fans don't start at all even if the temp goes above the middile of the scale on the dashboard. i found the previous posts very useful. However i'm a newbie and couldn't find the thermostat. I looked for it on the right of the engine but... i don't know how it looks like. can you tell what exactly to look for?

p.s. when i check the fan connection should i first disconnect the battery in case the fan starts and :bang:

first i thoght that there's something wrong with the fan connection but i noticed that when i turn on the A/C the fans start even below the mid of the scale on the dash. So i tried when the ac is off to keep the car on high revs to see if the fans would start but they wouldn't. even when the temp went high near the red lines!!

i know it's an old topic but i would appreciate if u help me.

Here's the steps i went through to identify the same problem, although i knew it was something to do with the fan control as i jumped the fan and connected it directly to the batt to test.

http://www.network54.com/Forum/1563...156507851/Fan+relay+on+Bravo+and+fan+problems

useful link

jug said:

useful link

Click to expand...

Yup my story of woe, and how it became a happily ever after!