Hey folks,

Thanks for all the help ive recieved so far, but im about to pick more brains and learn more about the cinq.

Ive said before that my heater reading used to always sit on 0'c and only rise up after a while of driving, well i went out yesterday afternoon for a bit of a drive as i was bored any how after a while of driving i went supermarket got some hot meat and went n parked up to eat, i was sitting with the engine idling and i noticed the steam coming from the bonnet, looked down at the temp reading and it had been slowly creeping up, wasnt in the red mind, but past the 100'c mark.

so i turned the engine off let it rest for a bit then came home, i noticed on the way home it went down when i was driving but up again when going slow and in traffic.

Checked the coolant when i got home and it was very low, think it had all evaparated with all the steam coming out of the bonnet.

I read on here last night on another thread and thought it could possibly be leaking once it got up to temp, hence why ive had no coolant issues for the last couple of weeks as ive really only been going to and from work and around town, just doing little drives. so i was a bit worried knowing i had to drive 40miles outa town today to go pick something up.

So this morning i refilled the coolant, didnt bleed it as
a) couldnt find the bleed screws (yes i thought there was a guide on here but cant find it, and i couldnt see under the bonnet any plastic bleed screws)
b) it wasnt empty thre was still coolant in there so airpocket shouldnt be an issue.

Anyhow i drove out to north walsham, no issues on the way out there, temp went up to bout 50'c, coming back it was risen to bout 90'c which i thought was ok as ive read that they are supposed to operate bout 90'c

Got back into the city going slower speeds, stopping and starting, sitting in traffic and thats where the temp rose above the 90'c but not into the red and no steam was coming out, but you could smell something wasnt right, like something was getting a little hot.

I dropped my mate home, and first thing i checked was the coolant, nope, that was full as where i left it this morning, so thats ruled out the coolant leak? as driving around all day that should have leaked out, and last night was a simple case of it evaperating.

Anyhow my guess would be something to do with the fan/radiator not working correctly as the water in the coolant tub was red hot, so it cant be cooling down properly and thus not cooling the engine properly.

Would the first thing to check be the fan and make sure that works? as ive no idea where that is or what it should sound like if its on.

Hope this post was detailed enough, if you need any more details just ask.

Fan is just behind the radiator. Sounds just like a -- well -- fan. The fan is the only thing keeping the radiator cool at low speeds and in stop/go traffic: at sensible speeds the air flow through the radiator itself does the job.

The bleed screws are 2 (except on some 899s). 1 behind the driver side headlight -- a sort of tube sticking out, 2 where the heater hose goes through the soundproofing on the bulkhead -- sort of passenger side middle.

So from what your saying Fingers, could possibly be the fan then, as at higher speeds it cools down from the air coming through, but from the low speeds, the fan isnt kicking in and cooling it down.

Sounds stupid but with the engine running, and without seeing the fan its hard to know what it should sound like, i mean ive got fans in my computer and ive got fans on my desk at work, just makes a slight whirling noise with the engine running the engine would mask that?

dont know about your car, but with mine you certianly know when the fan is on, it feels like the engine is still running when you turn it off and the fan is still running.

nope, turn my engine off and everything is off lol. no more noise coming from it

other than some times the hissing from pressure in the coolant where its got really hot lol.

Could very well be. First check the maxi fuse (behind/on top of battery). If no joy, test the fan itself by putting 12v + and - to the connector. The fan is switched on the - ive side via the switch on the radiator on Cinqs. On Cinqs, the positive is always live.

Watch your fingers!

think i will need to try this in day light.

any idea what the maxi fuse looks like? and will i need to remove anything to get access to the fan? cheers

On the Cinq it's that strange thing next to the battery terminal -- looks like a maxi version of a smaller fuse. You should be able to get to the fan without moving anything.

sounds very much like the fan tbh, its identical sounding to my first cinq,


check the fuse, if thats the problem replace it if it pops it again go under the bonnet and try turning the fan by hand (engine off and engine cold of course!!!) if the blade is hard to turn or feels "wrong" when you turn it, you'll need a new fan.

if the fan feels okay, check the wires to it, see if theres anything odd going on there.

Cheers all, i shall do this tomorrow when i get back from work, first check the fuse, im assuming its like a normal fuse and you can see when its broke? as the metal will be in 2 peices? or are car fuses different?
if the fuse' ok ill try turning the fan by hand (with everything off) and see how that feels.

Kinda a side question now as i hate to keep making threads!
i noticed my oil seems a bit different as to when i first got my cinq, when i first got it the oil was a nice golden colour, now its very dark (ive done just over 500m since having the car) ive got a new oil filter and new oil, but ive not got round to fitting these yet.



should there be oil there on the front of the engine? theres no oil coming out the filler cap and all looks ok there, probably over worrying as its expected to be oil on the engine, but just looks a little out of place on the front.

These's a seal on the top part of the engine, yours is leaking a bit. Its no big issue, think there is a guide, in the guides section on how to change it.

Oil gets dark and sticky very quick, don't worry Just stick to the service intervals.


//edit -- https://www.fiatforum.com/cinquecen...val-refit-cam-cover-gasket-1108cc-engine.html

Hmm why do u need to remove the throttle cable to do this ???

Ming

throttle cable? wrong thread?

A quick way to check if the radiator fan is working is to remove the temp switch connetor and jump the plug with a piece of wire, then turn the ignition on, if the fan is ok it will run until you either turn off the ignition or remove the jumper wire. As you look down at the radiator and half way down on the right side you will see a round plug with a connector with two wires going into it. Disconnect the plug so you can short a wire accross it.

Hey guys
now its day time and i can actually see what im doing ive managed to do some testing on the car

Heres what ive done:

## Tried to move the fan free hand and it spins fine, no resistance

## unplugged the fan switch and used a bit of wire in the plug on the fan to connect the terminals directly turned engine on and gave it 5 mins nothing happened. (cant see how this would work to be honest as the power is coming from the switch no? so by disconecting that, dont you loose all power and bridging the connector on the plug a waste of time.. unless ive done it wrong..)

## checked the maxifuse ontop of the battery. unable to tell if its gone as its just some copper metal with some black plastic on it.

## tried linking up a 10.8v battery to the fan plug using wires touching the connectors. (didnt have a 12v, but thought 10.8v would still get it spinning a little if just a little slower)


The fan switch/plug


The maxifuse?



Also does any body know what this is for:


Cheers folks

Ive also checked the 2 fuses in the fuse box under the steering wheel for the fans, both of them are fine and not broke.

Take off the plug and jump the wire accross the two pins on the plug end, not the sensor itself. Basicaly its only a loop circuit, in my last post I said the motor will only run with the ignition on, wrong info sorry. The motor should run whether the ignition is on or off, it should only stop when you take the wire out, this is how the fan can keep working when you switch off. The loop circuit will break once the switch inside the sensor reaches a pre- determined temp.

If the fan works, fine all is well up to a certain point but not the end of your fault finding.
If the fan does not work it could be a few things-

1. Fuse which you have checked, a broken wire, the plug not in tight enough or has dirty contacts.
2. The fan itself, in which case you can run 12 volt directly to the pins and the fan should run, if not replace it.

If the fan is working it may be two things-

1.The sensor itself, 10.00 to buy.
2.The most likely cause is a bad earth and should be the next thing to tick off your list. From memory as it is now dark outside the two wires going into the swich are 1 green with white trace and 2 solid black. The black wire is the earth on the switched side. How I fixed my same problem was to splice a wire into the black wire and run that wire to the body of the vehicle and securly fix it to make a new good earth; now everything working fine.

spedo said:

Take off the plug and jump the wire accross the two pins on the plug end, not the sensor itself. Basicaly its only a loop circuit, in my last post I said the motor will only run with the ignition on, wrong info sorry. The motor should run whether the ignition is on or off, it should only stop when you take the wire out, this is how the fan can keep working when you switch off. The loop circuit will break once the switch inside the sensor reaches a pre- determined temp.

Click to expand...

I jumped the 2 pins on the plug end, but the fan didnt spin still.

spedo said:

If the fan works, fine all is well up to a certain point but not the end of your fault finding.
If the fan does not work it could be a few things-

1. Fuse which you have checked, a broken wire, the plug not in tight enough or has dirty contacts.
2. The fan itself, in which case you can run 12 volt directly to the pins and the fan should run, if not replace it.

Click to expand...

The pins on the fan being the 2 pins in the plug? so instead of just bridging a wire accross the 2 pins link up 12v accross the 2 pins?

spedo said:

If the fan is working it may be two things-

1.The sensor itself, 10.00 to buy.
2.The most likely cause is a bad earth and should be the next thing to tick off your list. From memory as it is now dark outside the two wires going into the swich are 1 green with white trace and 2 solid black. The black wire is the earth on the switched side. How I fixed my same problem was to splice a wire into the black wire and run that wire to the body of the vehicle and securly fix it to make a new good earth; now everything working fine.

Click to expand...

Cheers for the reply

2. Unplug the fan wire from the fan, you will see two pins inside the fan where the plug fits. You now need to run 12 volt + and - to each pin to check if the fan runs. This will proberly be too tricky as you will proberly short out the battery. This is how I do it without my accupunture probs-

1. Get two lengts of wire to reach from the bat to the motor making sure you have crock clips at least one on each wire end.

2. Get two needles and unplug the fan, insert a needle into each wire, lay them flat against each wire and secure each needle to the wire with the croc clips.

3. Plug the connector back into the fan making sure you dont short the two croc clips together.

4. connect the other two ends of the wire to the bat. The fan should run, it doesent replace the fan.

thats great cheers mate,
and i want to confirm, 2 pins are the 2 pins inside the socket that ive highlighted on the previous page?