Should add, she went from buying a 4 year old, IMMACULATE car to destroying it (bodily and mechanically) in 3 year......

R.I.P. Little Rover 214.....
 
All the above comments and advice is good. But from what you initially wrote I thought you could have a faulty Temp gauge of a faulty temp sensor. Key question is are you continually loosing coolant and having to top up?

A cracked coolant bottle will allow coolant to escape and it's a low cost to replace this - you won't have to drain the system to replace that bottle.
Coolant on the ground by the driver's front wheel could indeed be the bottle or the coolant pump. Have a careful look below the bottle and around the crank pulley for coolant staining. You could also check under the inlet manifold gasket
with a small mirror - and also around the head to block joint.

Wasn't there a thread on here regards 'dodgy' 'cheap as chips' header tanks for sale on 'Flea Bay' not so long ago....one's that cracked almost immediately or somesuchthing?
 
I love our 1.8.
To be fair. Reading all the 'horror stories' on here puts me off buying a TD4 which everyone seems to rave about.
But then you read about expensive repairs on them. At least the 1.8 is well within the capabilities of a keen DIY owner.
And like Nodge says, just look after them, don't abuse them and change the belt and pump every now and then.

They're really not that bad an engine. Certainly no worse than the diesel.
 
I love our 1.8.
To be fair. Reading all the 'horror stories' on here puts me off buying a TD4 which everyone seems to rave about.
But then you read about expensive repairs on them. At least the 1.8 is well within the capabilities of a keen DIY owner.
And like Nodge says, just look after them, don't abuse them and change the belt and pump every now and then.

They're really not that bad an engine. Certainly no worse than the diesel.

My sister want a 'petrol' FL1 because of the negative press regards diesels but her track record on K Series engined 'things' is a bit..........poor :-S
 
I love our 1.8.
To be fair. Reading all the 'horror stories' on here puts me off buying a TD4 which everyone seems to rave about.
But then you read about expensive repairs on them. At least the 1.8 is well within the capabilities of a keen DIY owner.
And like Nodge says, just look after them, don't abuse them and change the belt and pump every now and then.

They're really not that bad an engine. Certainly no worse than the diesel.
I always liked mine too. :) SWMBO complained about how often she needed to fill it up so we got a diseasil. :(
 
So I changed the expansion tank and thought all was good for a few days. Until today it over heated about ten minutes into an eazy journey, so i stopped the engine for 30 seconds and all was fine again. Now i have just drove for 2mins on a Cold engine and it says its overheating and the fans are going wild...yet the enigine is still cool! Thermostat maybe? Or are all the arrows still pointing to the HG??
 
So I changed the expansion tank and thought all was good for a few days. Until today it over heated about ten minutes into an eazy journey, so i stopped the engine for 30 seconds and all was fine again. Now i have just drove for 2mins on a Cold engine and it says its overheating and the fans are going wild...yet the enigine is still cool! Thermostat maybe? Or are all the arrows still pointing to the HG??

If it blows it's coolant out the pressure cap, when the engine is cold, then that would point to the HG.
 

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