Hello,
I've just rebuilt my landy, and carried on using my 200tdi that was in the vehicle originally. I plan to rebuild it at some point, though there's not really anything wrong with it. It's a solid engine and I've never had any issues with it, it's maintained regularly.
On the way back from the MOT on Friday, I noticed the temperature sensor was quite high. I haven't paid much attention to it, as it never really moved much....once it got upto temp it used to sit around mid way through.
I was a little worried, so looked a little more on Friday night, and when you start the engine the gauge does climb quite quickly. The thing is, as it climbs, touching any part of the engine doesn't really feel hot.
Today I've taken the water pump off as I thought I'd determined that it must be broke - the water pump is about 5 years old. I got it off and it turns fine. The fins seem fine, and are metal so I doubt they could have been damaged.
Whilst I had the pump off I took the thermostat housing off too, and tested the thermostat. It seems fine as well, though I do have a spare on order. I could touch the temperature sender whilst the housing was off, and it was barely warm, though the gauge was showing about 1/3rd - this seems quite high to me, but I'm not sure?
The other thing I've noticed just now with it all back together, is the pipes don't seem to really get hard - when should this happen? Is it once it's been running for a while or pretty much straight away?
Have I filled it with coolant correctly? As i'd just had it apart, I put the water pump back on and tightened up pipes, then took the bleed valve on top of radiator off. I then filled it up through the thermostat housing as I thought then I'd not get any air in the head. Once that was full i put thermostat housing on and put coolant into the expansion tank until it came out the radiator, put cap on and then started engine. I left it for a few minutes and saw it steadily climbing. I then took off radiator cap again (as the pipe wasn't hard) and it wasn't up to the top now - so I put a bit more in.
I tried turning heater on but got cold air out (fits with my experience, heater takes AGES before you get hot air). I touched the pipes going to heater and they were quite warm, but again perfectly fine to touch.
This has been a bit of a brain dump, sorry. I'm a little anxious as I don't want to have damaged the engine, but I also want to have it back working reliably (even though it seems fine, but the temp gauge is confusing me!).
For reference, during rebuild it's had a new radiator, so I've assuming that that isn't at fault. The rest of the involved bits were on the engine before I rebuilt, and were working fine. The engine itself seems absolutely fine - I don't know how it would be if it was overheating though?
My thoughts on what could be up:
Temp gauge/sender is broke - possible, and I may order a new sender just so I have one, though surely if it was broken I'd get either 0 or full, not a steady increase? (we're talking into red within 5 mins or so).
Thermostat - I've tested it in a cup of water and it seemed to open. But again, engine usually takes so long to heat up that surely it shouldn't be needing to open that quickly?
Water pump - it seemed to work, but I obviously can't have it running at the speed it is on the engine. Any way of confirming it's working correctly?
Something else?
What temperature range should the gauge show?
I've just rebuilt my landy, and carried on using my 200tdi that was in the vehicle originally. I plan to rebuild it at some point, though there's not really anything wrong with it. It's a solid engine and I've never had any issues with it, it's maintained regularly.
On the way back from the MOT on Friday, I noticed the temperature sensor was quite high. I haven't paid much attention to it, as it never really moved much....once it got upto temp it used to sit around mid way through.
I was a little worried, so looked a little more on Friday night, and when you start the engine the gauge does climb quite quickly. The thing is, as it climbs, touching any part of the engine doesn't really feel hot.
Today I've taken the water pump off as I thought I'd determined that it must be broke - the water pump is about 5 years old. I got it off and it turns fine. The fins seem fine, and are metal so I doubt they could have been damaged.
Whilst I had the pump off I took the thermostat housing off too, and tested the thermostat. It seems fine as well, though I do have a spare on order. I could touch the temperature sender whilst the housing was off, and it was barely warm, though the gauge was showing about 1/3rd - this seems quite high to me, but I'm not sure?
The other thing I've noticed just now with it all back together, is the pipes don't seem to really get hard - when should this happen? Is it once it's been running for a while or pretty much straight away?
Have I filled it with coolant correctly? As i'd just had it apart, I put the water pump back on and tightened up pipes, then took the bleed valve on top of radiator off. I then filled it up through the thermostat housing as I thought then I'd not get any air in the head. Once that was full i put thermostat housing on and put coolant into the expansion tank until it came out the radiator, put cap on and then started engine. I left it for a few minutes and saw it steadily climbing. I then took off radiator cap again (as the pipe wasn't hard) and it wasn't up to the top now - so I put a bit more in.
I tried turning heater on but got cold air out (fits with my experience, heater takes AGES before you get hot air). I touched the pipes going to heater and they were quite warm, but again perfectly fine to touch.
This has been a bit of a brain dump, sorry. I'm a little anxious as I don't want to have damaged the engine, but I also want to have it back working reliably (even though it seems fine, but the temp gauge is confusing me!).
For reference, during rebuild it's had a new radiator, so I've assuming that that isn't at fault. The rest of the involved bits were on the engine before I rebuilt, and were working fine. The engine itself seems absolutely fine - I don't know how it would be if it was overheating though?
My thoughts on what could be up:
Temp gauge/sender is broke - possible, and I may order a new sender just so I have one, though surely if it was broken I'd get either 0 or full, not a steady increase? (we're talking into red within 5 mins or so).
Thermostat - I've tested it in a cup of water and it seemed to open. But again, engine usually takes so long to heat up that surely it shouldn't be needing to open that quickly?
Water pump - it seemed to work, but I obviously can't have it running at the speed it is on the engine. Any way of confirming it's working correctly?
Something else?
What temperature range should the gauge show?
