heart in the mouth moment

[calibrax]

Went out earlier for a drive, was caning it up a dual carriageway near me called Bluebell Hill. It's quite steep, and my old car (Cavalier 1.8LS) would struggle to hold 70mph up it, but the Rover can get to three figures easily.

Anyway, about halfway up the hill I happen to glance at my coolant temp gauge. Which is off the scale

Heart in the mouth moment, your mind starts racing. "Is it HGF? how long has it been at max? will the head need skimming? How much is this gonna cost? aaaargh!"

Luckily just over halfway up is a Shell garage, so I pulled in there, switched off and opened the bonnet. Expansion tank was empty, and the fans were running hard. They were also deflecting lots of water droplets into the air from below the manifold.

It was the hose between the aircon pump and the lower rad pipe, it was actually spraying a jet of water onto the fan! I had a leak on it a few months back, the AA man had repaired it with hose bandage, and it was working fine up till now! In my boot I actually had a brand new replacement hose, just hadn't got round to fitting it (due to weather, christmas and a trip abroad). Fitted it which took an hour (it's bloody awkward to get to when you have aircon pipes!), filled up the tank and got rid of the airlocks and now it's fine

I dread to think what damage I'd have caused if I hadn't noticed the gauge!

[mach1rob]

Lucky escape

[r44flyer]

Mine went too a little while back. It's caused by rubbing on the fan shroud, eventually it makes a hole. I was lucky as mine started leaking when I moved the pipe to do another job, I noticed it and replaced it. Might be worth putting some kevlar tape around the new one.

[Ross9]

indeed, nothing worse than noticing the guage at the red and wondering how long it's been there.

On my way to Crail in 2005 and I was coming out of a small village, noticed the guage at the red and had the logger a brick moment, the car had just had a ful rebuild about 4 months prior, turned out to be a split hose, the deadline for the PRG TOTB team was that weekend as well, so after some insulating tape bodging and cutting with the help of the man from Green Flag we got it running and he followed me to the strip (about 10 mins up the road) to make sure it would hold, I did 1 run to get a 13.4 and qualify for totb, then nursed it home lol, engine still going fine now, and it got baked another time due to an airlock in the cooling system so it's been at the red twice with no damage, think my luck is probably all ran out lol.

Ross

[Funkster]

I think header tank level sensors are a good thing, generally. My VW has one as standard (even though it's broken at the moment - must fix that) and it makes a light flash on the dash when the coolant level is low.

Brown and Gammons do a kit for the MGF which gives you a new header tank with a sensor, and a Thing which sounds a buzzer when the level drops.

As we supply the Thing to B&G, I will ask the boss what the header tank is off when he's back in - he's off ill at the moment though!

fwiw,
--
Olly

[craigwint11]

Good thing about my coupe is that the needle always seems to sit in exactly the same position (just hunder half way). So following a few 0 - 60 times i could smell a funni smell, didnt know what it was, was drivin home and temp guage went up ever so slightly so imediatly thought , popped bonnet to find return pipe to water resevoir had popped off and was sprayin coolant over the engine!! lost bout 2 litres! Was crappin my self!!
Luckily didnt get too close to the red!!

[Fordimus Prime]

Makes you wonder why they dont make cars with an alarm that beeps when the temp guage goes near red.

Glad no damage was done dude!

[Raistlin]

Don't you DARE damage that car Calibrax - it's iconic

[Long_guts]

Bodge an old kettle whistle to the filler cap !!!!!!

[Craig]

Am I the only one who habitually checks the temperature gauge every once in a while, even though I have rarely had an overheating problem?

Scary moment, Steve. Glad it turned out to be nothing serious.

[Squaddiemodo]

Am I the only one who habitually checks the temperature gauge every once in a while, even though I have rarely had an overheating problem?

Scary moment, Steve. Glad it turned out to be nothing serious.

Nope i do it as part of my every few second mirror check

[r44flyer]

As a pilot I get used to checking my gauges all the time, 1 second in the cockpit in every 10, so a naturally do it while driving as well.

It's a good habit to get into I suppose, especially if it means avoiding a close call like this one!

The header tank level warning is a good idea, and it should be part of every modern vehicle nowadays I reckon.

[Punx0r]

The SD1 has a coolant level sensor, as does the Mk1 800. I guess Rover cheaped out at some point and stopped fitting them

[HOPPY]

I think header tank level sensors are a good thing, generally. My VW has one as standard (even though it's broken at the moment - must fix that) and it makes a light flash on the dash when the coolant level is low.

Brown and Gammons do a kit for the MGF which gives you a new header tank with a sensor, and a Thing which sounds a buzzer when the level drops.

As we supply the Thing to B&G, I will ask the boss what the header tank is off when he's back in - he's off ill at the moment though!

fwiw,
--
Olly

Its off the 25 also I think you can get them for the 45

[420gazza]

they also fitted the coolant level sensors to the 218td, the expansion tanks are the same, so i reckon with a bit of work you could wire the sensor into your existing loom and use the expansion tank in your own car.