Fip rebuild

wammers said:

Considering that the thermostat opens at 80 degrees and standard over heat warning is set at 98 degrees would say 96 is a little on the high side. Hovering around 89 would be more normal.

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Not to bad then I've just been to Birmingham and back faultless it hovers 92 only when I sit in traffic or long inclines it creeps up to 96 at a steady 70mph its only if I really boot it it will creep up to 100c , but In saying that Im still well away from a over heat wouldn't that not be between 110/20 c being pressurised and with added coolant ?
Its fifteen years old and the passage ways won't be as clear as they used to be guage sits bang at twelve no matter what .i am Dubious of the dash temp gauge tho it doesn't really change once at 12 o clock

Grit Valve said:

guage sits bang at twelve no matter what .i am Dubious of the dash temp gauge tho it doesn't really change once at 12 o clock

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That's because other than during the warm-up cycle when the gauge position bares some resemblance to the current coolant temp, once in the normal operating range the gauge becomes a pretty-looking warning light. Bang in the middle for being within the normal range, 3/4s for stage one overheat and then stage two (severe overheat) puts it in the red. (On some cars there's overheat (gauge in red) and severe (gauge in red + flashing light)

What I've never fathomed is there's a warning beep for just about everything on the P38, windows not set, keys in ignition, sunroof open, brake switch failure - but overheat? Nothing - nada - not a peep! Madness! All modern cars are like this, consumers like temperature gauges over warning lights but don't like to see them fluctuate - which defeats the whole point of them. :crazy:

StuckAgainSteve said:

That's because other than during the warm-up cycle when the gauge position bares some resemblance to the current coolant temp, once in the normal operating range the gauge becomes a pretty-looking warning light. Bang in the middle for being within the normal range, 3/4s for stage one overheat and then stage two (severe overheat) puts it in the red. (On some cars there's overheat (gauge in red) and severe (gauge in red + flashing light)

What I've never fathomed is there's a warning beep for just about everything on the P38, windows not set, keys in ignition, sunroof open, brake switch failure - but overheat? Nothing - nada - not a peep! Madness! All modern cars are like this, consumers like temperature gauges over warning lights but don't like to see them fluctuate - which defeats the whole point of them. :crazy:

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I've had it in overheat mode once when the air didn't expel , you say three stages I noticed in nano setting to test gauge it has four cold normal (lower white ) middle (12.0 clock ) and hot in the red light on .

Also our other car remains in blue much longer than mine and only goes to a quater when warmed( lower white ) increase to half if being towed worked hard .

I do remember reading lots of threads on this forum about heating issues and i remember will mentioning that with original newly fitted cooling parts that it did indeed cool much better and the gauge fluctuated with what conditions were prevailing .

But in general terms the guage does sit at twelve and if the heat was is that hot it will go into the red as it should ,everyone has there interpriation I've driven like it for 20k after replaced the complete cooling system as mine would used to over heat on steep long inclines .

Grit Valve said:

Not to bad then I've just been to Birmingham and back faultless it hovers 92 only when I sit in traffic or long inclines it creeps up to 96 at a steady 70mph its only if I really boot it it will creep up to 100c , but In saying that Im still well away from a over heat wouldn't that not be between 110/20 c being pressurised and with added coolant ?
Its fifteen years old and the passage ways won't be as clear as they used to be guage sits bang at twelve no matter what .i am Dubious of the dash temp gauge tho it doesn't really change once at 12 o clock

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It won't, it sits at a nominal preset position when things are normal. You did not say temp reading was taken travelling under load. I got the impression it was when sat at idle. 96 sat at idle when the engine has not been under load would be a little high. Coming down from speed to sitting in traffic, it will rise because coolant flow is reduced at idle and latent heat has to be extracted from the engine.

The nano (lower cold) is just an arbitrary setting which sends a voltage (or sets a resistance depending on type of sender) which blackbox knows will put the gauge at 1/4, in reality, until you're in the "normal" (twelve o'clock) range the gauge will act like an analogue gauge creeping up in tiny steps. It will then sit pinned at 12 o'clock regardless of coolant temp until the range steps out of the normal range into hot (3/4) or back into "analogue" warmup if it's over-cooled enough. There may well be two stages of overheat on the P38 (red and red+ warning light) I haven't looked into it in enough detail to know - but it is common with other cars. I wrote the software (well ECU firmware) to drive the coolant gauge for a mass market motor manufacturer when they first started the switch-over to this system from proper analogue gauges in the late 90s.

StuckAgainSteve said:

The nano (lower cold) is just an arbitrary setting which sends a voltage (or sets a resistance depending on type of sender) which blackbox knows will put the gauge at 1/4, in reality, until you're in the "normal" (twelve o'clock) range the gauge will act like an analogue gauge creeping up in tiny steps. It will then sit pinned at 12 o'clock regardless of coolant temp until the range steps out of the normal range into hot (3/4) or back into "analogue" warmup if it's over-cooled enough. There may well be two stages of overheat on the P38 (red and red+ warning light) I haven't looked into it in enough detail to know - but it is common with other cars. I wrote the software (well ECU firmware) to drive the coolant gauge for a mass market motor manufacturer when they first started the switch-over to this system from proper analogue gauges in the late 90s.

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yes it creeps up with what you would think is a resemblance to the nano increase via the ecu temp readings but there after is has no resemblance as to and minor changes that confirms my dought I not sure either if it would go into the red say with out the light or not .
Never the less if it goes that high there is somthing wrong .

Grit Valve said:

Never the less if it goes that high there is somthing wrong .

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Yep, but isn't it annoying that you have no warning of a failing coolant system until it's too late? In the "old days" you'd notice the temps are slightly higher than normal and would investigate, with most cars these days a 3/4 reading is the first time you know you've got a problem and is only a transitional period before you hit red, unless you are doing some genuinely strenuous towing!

StuckAgainSteve said:

Yep, but isn't it annoying that you have no warning of a failing coolant system until it's too late? In the "old days" you'd notice the temps are slightly higher than normal and would investigate, with most cars these days a 3/4 reading is the first time you know you've got a problem and is only a transitional period before you hit red, unless you are doing some genuinely strenuous towing!

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Yes very true cheap tack nowadays not like smiths gauges huh

More like expensive tat that doesn't warn of anything!

StuckAgainSteve said:

More like expensive tat that doesn't warn of anything!

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Like you can't but the gauge sir , you have to buy the dash itself LOL

Grit Valve said:

I've had it in overheat mode once when the air didn't expel , you say three stages I noticed in nano setting to test gauge it has four cold normal (lower white ) middle (12.0 clock ) and hot in the red light on .

Also our other car remains in blue much longer than mine and only goes to a quater when warmed( lower white ) increase to half if being towed worked hard .

I do remember reading lots of threads on this forum about heating issues and i remember will mentioning that with original newly fitted cooling parts that it did indeed cool much better and the gauge fluctuated with what conditions were prevailing .

But in general terms the guage does sit at twelve and if the heat was is that hot it will go into the red as it should ,everyone has there interpriation I've driven like it for 20k after replaced the complete cooling system as mine would used to over heat on steep long inclines .

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Thermostat not doing it's job.

did you get the problem sorted grit

mutsnutz said:

did you get the problem sorted grit

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I took apart and cleaned the connectors to the fip cps both temp sensors maf oil pressure fuse box main loom cleaned maf and changed ecu sensor .

It's not done it since been to birmingham and back its faultless now the only suspect thing I found was a loose connector block to fip the round one .

Either that or I frightend her with the nano .

Think it was the loose connector but can't be sure
I been fiddling with the rpm settings to a lower and higher range that could or cleaned the tracks a bit in the pump by varying its normal stop position .
All I can say is it works fine now

So no pump needed as yet which I would of hoped seeing as I had it rebuild 20k ago.