cooling issues and no hot air.....

[SpacemanSpiff]

So im having a bit of a time of it with the cooling on my 1.9 watercooled van. The temperature gauge is all over the place and now there is no hot air coming from the heater (the blower motor is still working). I think that part of it is an electrical fault as the temp gauge raises rapidly and the light flashes even when the engine is not running but the key is in position 1. After a bit of a drive the gauge sometimes goes back to displaying a normal temp with no flashing light but that dose not normally last long. As far as I can tell the van is not overheating or loosing coolant as the header tank is full and she drives fine but this sudden loss of hot air in the cab has me worried.

Anyone got any clues as to what could be going wrong?

John

[kevtherev]

does the heater control actually open the valve located in the radiator fan well?

[SpacemanSpiff]

Hi Kevtherev thanks for the reply. So to add insult to injury I'm going to have to ask everyone to ignore my post. I had another look over the engine bay to be on the safe side and guess what.....no coolant! Just goes to show it's always good to start at the beginning when fault finding. I'm a bit concerned that it has lost so much in only a few days so I guess my next job is looking for leaks.

Anyway I have her a quick top up and all seems well with the temperature gauge, the hot air has returned and I feel like a fool!

Any suggestions for suspect areas I should be looking at for leaking coolant?

[CovKid]

Give it a bleed too.

[Dazco]

Check all your pipes and joints for leaks or evidence of leaks. Look out for crusty deposits on joints etc . If you don't have any leaks you have problems as kev says bleed the system thoroughly . You may need to do this a few times . If the red light starts flashing while you are driving, STOP as soon as you can or you may kill your engine.

[SpacemanSpiff]

I had a quick look last night but could not see any obvious leaks. I will read the wiki and try to give it a bleed over the weekend.

I did notice there was no coolant in the expansion tank behind the number plate flap. I have ordered a new header tank cap in case that has failed. Should there always be coolant in the expansion tank or only when the system is running at pressure?

Sorry for all the questions, I'm realising quickly I know very little about t25 cooling

[Dazco]

The tank behind the flap with the number plate should have coolant between the high and low marks . The tank with the blue cap should be full to the top .
Get your new blue cap from Brickwerks.

[SpacemanSpiff]

I ordered the cap from b and b components in Maidstone, i have had parts from them before and they seemed pretty good.

Are the brickwreck ones different?

[Oldiebut goodie]

I have had stuff from them although not a darlek cap and the components appear to be good quality so far. Only using it will tell I suppose - it doesn't look like a genuine one nor are there any identifiable marks that I can see.

[CovKid]

Most stuff B&B do is good including droplinks. CV joints were a disappointment though.

[SpacemanSpiff]

I haven't really used Brickwrecks for parts yet. I have had good experiences with mega bug and B and B so far so hopefully the cap will be OK. If not I will go with Brickwrecks as I have just found out we get a 10% discount for being 80-90 members

[ermie571]

blow through the cap when you get it...it if quacks like a duck...you are ok!

Emx

[SpacemanSpiff]

I got the cap the other day and it turned out to be a blue one with the valve enclosed in the top. It looks good and gave a good quack when blown though.

However I have now identified the leak as coming from the front to rear coolant pipes that are corroded to buggery. Looks like I'm gonna have to save my pennies for a set of stainless steal ones!

[kevtherev]

Or silicone ones!
Or plastic ones!

[SpacemanSpiff]

Hi kev I could only find stainless steel ones when I was searching. Where can I find the other varieties and are they any cheaper? T25 ownership and being a postgraduate student are hard on the old wallet