Hello guys,
On Thursday I drove my 900cc M reg Cinquecento, up to Birmingham, from Falmouth, (280 miles) to go see my girlfriend just before I went back to Uni... I parked the car up out side her house for a few days before returning home on the Sunday afternoon.

My problem occurred with the car yesterday (sunday) while I was driving from Birmingham to Falmouth, I got about 50 miles outside Birmingham and I noticed the temperature rising from about 50/ 60 degrees to roughly 100+ I pulled over at the first available services to see what the problem and found that I had no coolant, so as advised I let the engine cool down then put neat water in the coolant tank.

I drove about 60 miles where it started to over heat again... this time pulling over at the side of the M5, waited like 15 mins and filled it up again, then it only lasted 25 miles.. bacically it got shorter and shorterm untill it could only manage about 8/ 10 miles before it got hot, I did not let it go into the red.

So in the end I called up a recovery truck and it took me home the last 100 miles for 200 quid, lovely!

While at Exeter service station, a guy said that the water pump may have gone as water did not seem to be circulating through when he pulled the throttle cable, and also with the cap off water would just rise and go into the over flow tank.

someone else suggested it could have been the thermostat not opening to allow water to pass into the engine.

Furthermore it was suggested it could have been the head gasket, in which case, I'm royally....

Symptoms and overview.

• Have to fill the coolant tank up.

• There seam to be no apparent leaks.

• Hoses look tight.

• Engine has no problem starting.

• When it has water in the coolant tank, temp gauge reads cool, (about 60 degrees) and slowly goes up to around 90+ degrees when it runs out of water.
• I feel no air gaps in pipes when squeezing.
• When heaters are on, they go cold while it starts to over heat.

Any suggestions here would be grateful. thanks.

Did you ever bleed the system when you were refilling.

Cheers

PD

when you look atthe oil on the dip stick or filler cap is there a milky emmusion that usually means a head gasket happened on a rover I had recently

Rally: I did not bleed anything, I just let the car cool down, and put neat water into the coolant tank.

Nick: I just ran out and checked the oil with the dip stick, there seems to be no signs of milky-niss coming from the oil.

Ah, well if you didn't bleed it you've possibly done more damage to the engine. Head gasket doesn't always mean milky oil, it could have gone between the water way and cylinder.

Cheers

PD

that is something I did not want to hear, if that is the case how big of a job is it? looks like a scrap scrap time from the old Cinq then.. life sucks.

Refill it, bleeding it properly and try again.

Cheers

PD