oh bugger.. a couple of problems

[clartsonly]

there we are dylan star4ts up after a month sitting on the drive.. I am warming the oil in a 20 minute drive to make a change, and I notice the temp is not getting over the cold blob on the temperature gauge, I move some of the heating controls and one the top one (direction) doesn't operate anything, just a scrapping noise. the wire has disconnected, I get back home, check the water in the overflow tank empty.

therefore am I right in assuming the following.

1) heating direction control has disconnected from the wire to open the top vent. (simply override to top vent )
2) coolant disappearing ????
3) thermastat broken and stuck open????

any ideas regarding the coolant and the cold running temp? I changed the oil and ran another 12 miles with no issues, but the temp never got more than a couple of mm off bottom, the heater seemed to put out hot enough air though.

[kevtherev]

how much water was in the header?
was the red light flashing constantly or did it just do it's self check?

fill the system up run the engine and look for any obvious leaks.. like around the water pump and pipework to the rad.

[clartsonly]

I will try and check this evening, the engine was still hot so I didn't check the header tank, there is a problem with the level sensor circuit, it always flashes initially then starts flashing constantly and only goes off if you switch the engine off then on again, there was always water in the tank previously when this red light constantly flashing, and the flashing continued even if the sensor was bypassed.

[clartsonly]

I have also been thinking about the coolant temperature, if there is plenty of collant in there I am going to assume the sensor is faulty, as the heat coming out of the heaters is hot enough to assume the engine isn't cold.

when I fixed the temperature system, it was always showing at least 3/4 on gauge even if I undid the bleed screw on the thermostat housing.