Hey Folks,
Was sat idling at the petrol station waiting to put air in the tyres before an 800 mile trip, suddenly noticed the temp gauge was very high! Not maxed but still 3/4 of the gauge.
Mine usually runs about 1/3 of gauge. So cut the engine and lifted the bonnet to cool, back to normal and drove the 10min home with no issues.
Abandoned the roadtrip and took the 2nd car.
Now trying to solve the issue, i'd assumed it was the fan motor(s) so checked fuses which were OK then searched on here. I WD40'd the fan connectors and pulled them/replaced a few times as ZMan had suggested in another post, no joy.
Now I can't seem to get the car to overheat, I've run it for 5min at idle, temp increases a litle, then about 3min at 3-4k rpm, heats up to normal operating temp, let idle for another 10min, no increase in temp... But fan not cutting in to regulate the temp. Had thought the thermostat may be faulty too as bottom rad hose was cold for 1st 10min, however this then heated up to similar temp of top hose.
I'm a bit reluctant to keep the car running any longer in case the temp gauge is knackered and I damage the engine. (bad experiences with head gasket on a student day car...)
SO to test the fans I stuck the AC on, no joy. If I prod the fans with a spanner whilst AC is on then they start, drivers side fan has lots of power, passanger side not so much. More WD40 and taking connectors on and off several times as ZMan suggested earlier again but still not starting on their own when AC on, and car not getting hot enough (according to gauge) to start fans for high coolant temp.
What do you guys suggest as my next course of action? If the fan motors were cheap i'd just change them, but they're pretty extortianate and surely if the motor is dead, the fan wouldn't turn on even with a helping prod?
Apologies for the long story, just had a new clutch fitted and changed all brakes costing well over £1k, i'm rapidly getting fed up with the car and it's going soon if things continue like this
Any pointers greatly received!
