Hello everyone. So it's that time of year again when I bring out the tools to work on my pandas. Winter in sweden is not the best time to work on cars.

So, I have a 1988 panda 4x4. Last year was spent fixing the brakes, some rust and making it run on idle. I never drove it last year though and never have so long as I've owned it.
The other day I took it out just to let it run for maybe a kilometer.

I noticed how the temperature gauge went up to 90 degrees and beyond just on that short drive. When I got back and opened the hood, some water pipes were extremely hot while others were cool. This doesn't seem normal to me.

So my thought was as follows: maybe the cooling system is blocked somehow, preventing the flow of coolant through the engine. And my second thought was: maybe the water pump is broken.

Question:Is there any good way to check if the system is blocked? And is there an easy way to see if the pump is working (maybe disconnect some hose and see if the coolant comes under preasure when I turn the engine over)?

Sorry for the long text but I like to explain things clearly.

Best regards,
Albert

Most likely an air-lock. Did you set the heater on maximum and undo the bleed screws in the heater pipe and top of radiator?

us 4x4 guys have a "self bleeding" system. we dont have bleeding points on our cooling systems.

it is possible the pump has failed. i have seen it where one type of pump impeller is made out of plastic and it can snap away from the shaft. one thing to try is (i know it sounds bad) but take the engine to red line when its at about 90.c and hold it for a second.
make sure your heater lever is moved all the way to the red.

the fast spinning water pump should push any air to the radiator where it will bleed to the header tank through that small pipe.

i also found that having the car parked on an incline sideways or nose up making the header tank higher can also help air find its way to the tank.

i have quite a sloping drive and coolant bleeding is very easy if i park it nose up.

one other thing is that maybe the thermostat has failed in the closed position. not often it happens, but it can.

hope this helps.

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I forgot to consider that the pump is mechanically driven by the belt. That to me makes it more unlikely that the pump should be broken.

I didn't have the heater on hot when I took it for a drive so hopefully it's just an airlock. I think I might drain the coolant and flush the system out just to see if something wierd comes out. Plus I have no idea how long the coolant's been in there.

John. I'm not sure I know what you mean. Take it to red line as in the temperature warning on the gauge, and then turn the engine off?

I thought thermostats always returned to open when they fail.

Ok this seems to be electrical. The gauges are moving all over the place (suddenly the tank is full without me refueling) and the foglight-light and the rear window heater light are on no matter if the respective functions are turned on or not.

Any idea what's up with this?

Albert Alfvag said:

Ok this seems to be electrical. The gauges are moving all over the place (suddenly the tank is full without me refueling) and the foglight-light and the rear window heater light are on no matter if the respective functions are turned on or not.

Any idea what's up with this?

Click to expand...

Start with earth points, there's one on the left of the engine under the bonnet, I believe there is another behind the engine under the matrix area and another on the right somewhere behind the headlight, the problem earth area for me has always been on the left of the engine. Still chasing some earth issues on one of my cars though, it's so annoying

I feel like a fool now. I removed all 8 earth connections from the hedgehog (that's the word right?) on the left side behind the headlight and gave them a good sanding and brushing. And just like that, the dashboard works like normal again.

And now when I took it for the same short drive I did last time, the temp gauge barely moved. So maybe this whole thing was just the dash playing up.

And as always, I appreciate your help guys.