General Panda to Africa

[Steven]

If you need a bear sitter Jim I'm your man.

 

[John H]

JOHN!!!

Now you scared him and he won't come out of bed!!


..and I need him to help me find that air-lock on the white one today!

Jim

Ok, apologies for frightening him - but it's a real possibility

In the mean time, where your air lock?

No heater, perhaps?


If so there are two ways of clearing it,
first of all make sure you have plenty of coolant in the system, and the heater valve open.

Then either,
open the bleed screw in the heater return pipe behind the throttle body, and rev the engine up a bit to give the pump sufficient "push" to get the coolant up into the heater. When it starts to come out of the screw tighten it up.

Or,
take the battery out, remove the sound proofing there, take the top hose off the heater matrix valve and pour coolant into it until it start to pour out of the pipe the hose belongs on - then put the hose back on pronto.


Either way, find out where your coolant leak is which caused the airlock:
in no particular order -
could be the metal pipe which feeds from the bottom hose into the back of the water pump,
or the water pump,
or the head gasket,
or damaged/split hose.

 

[JimMagill]

No John the heaters fine and there's no coolant loss

it's just since I changed the coolant the car runs much hotter all the time (between 95 and 100 and I had the same problem with the selecta too but it sorted it's self after a few weeks)
This ain't good on a car that I intend to take to the Sararha!!

The fan still works ok and theres no mayo or anything to suggest a head gasket so I'm assuming that there must be an air lock stopping the water getting out of the bock.

Going to drain it again tomorrow and put the hose on it too incase there's something blocked since the last change/hose out.

Jim

 

[christopher watson]

Jim, try flushing the radiator from the top, and then sticking the hose into the bottom and flushing (sounds painful ).

 

[John H]

OK.

Silly question:

did you bleed the the radiator more than once?
(as you look down on the rad with the bonnet open - the bleed screw is at the left hand end at the back).

Christophers back flush suggestion is good too, but you'll loose the new coolant unless you can drain it carefully.

 

[JimMagill]

erm.... Might have

(Ok, what have i done wrong now..... )


Jim

 

[John H]

erm.... Might have

(Ok, what have i done wrong now..... )


Jim

Nothing much, but the radiator is an air trap (which is why it has its own bleed screw).

Obviously it needs to be bled on a refill.

Also, during the first few days air is still finding its way out of the system, so another carefull bleed when warm (under pressure) will help fill that last bit at the top of the radiator.

If a fraction of the radiator is full of air it won't work as well as intended, and the engine will tend to run a bit warm (as the heat isn't being removed by the radiator quickly enough).

 

[JimMagill]

get the feeling that I'm going to be using these words alot when I'm away....

(mainly directed at the panda)

"Khra Kkewed Kahba Chaita!!!"

I would translate, but they're very very rude

Jim

 

[John H]

That's no way to talk to your Panda

The Moroccan words get through the "swear filter" here.

This place is such a busy site I thought my ISP wouldn't let me connect to it

 

[JimMagill]

Well, after much flaffin about and some cursing and Alan shouting at me for starting this at 8.30 at night and realizing I'd no anti freeze etc I got the required result!!!!

Right where it should be.

Many thanks for everyone what helped

Jim

 

[John H]

and realizing I'd no anti freeze etc

You did find some antifreeze, didn't you?

The engine needs it for the anti-corrosion additives..

 

[JimMagill]

Yes !

(hehe!)

Althou it was cheap stuff from the local petrol station you know the 2 years stuff instead of the rather expensive 5 year stuff that was in it before I drained it

Jim

 

[Steven]

Good job Jim.

 

[JimMagill]

Except I didn't tighten up the rad valve tight enough and came out of the shop to find a puddle and an empty expansion tank!!!! AAAGGGGGGGHHHHHH

Now it's air locking again!!! :bang:

I left it in the 'Heart of Darkness' where Stu from the NIIMC lives and he said he'd sort it when he's fitting the Italian flags and WWW.NiImC.Com graphics...

It's going to look very different

Jim

 

[Steven]

He got them then!

 

[JimMagill]

I'm not counting my chickens.... (or pandas)

Jim

 

[christopher watson]

i have an article from the mail on sundays 'night and day' magazine. it has many details of places to visit in morocco, if you want the article sent out to you Jim, PM me your address.

(one of the places mentioned is this... www.jnanetamsna.com )

 

[JimMagill]

Thats really kind of you Christopher! Many thanks!

but I'll more be down the local Libary looking 'Morocco on 20 bucks a day' type stuff.. I think the Sunday Mail Travel section might be a bit outside my budget

Again, thanks

Jim

 

[JimMagill]

Got a message from Stu that the graphics are ordered and should be on by the weekend. it's 2 big italian flags (one on the bonnet and one on the roof) and 2 smaller ones (on each door) with WWW.NIIMC.COM under the black door bumper (bit like on a sisley) and on the bonnet too.

Can't wait to stick pics up

Jim

 

[Steven]

I can't wait to see it!