13 replies to this topic

[tweety]

Hey all
rite my baby keeps over heating, i havnt a clue what it is. At first i thought it was the thermostat so i changed it (what a bloody job dat was!) but it hasnt made a difference. Ive bin told sooooo many things it cud b e.g: fins on water pump rotted away, bubble in rad, rad blocked/nakkered. It has a front mounted rad (the front end is actually in the mini performance mag in the cooling section with the bonnet up lol) but i jus dunno what to try first!
It also has an electric fan which isnt huge but andy (ex owner) didnt seem to have any trouble with it!
So heres what happens:
it only really happens when the car hasd bin running for along time, or im on a traffic jam (doesnt have to be long b4 it starts to over heat!)
Any ideas???
help would b very appreciated!
cheers

[Woody]

First thing to try would be to flush the cooling system out , get some rad flush , run the car untill hot (it usualy says somthing like 20 mins) drain it all out , and then i conect a hosepipe to the heater hose with a jublilee clip and leave the tap run for half an hour or so , this flushes the system out from the dissconected end of the heater pipe , This is good to do once a year anyway.
When you refill you can check if the rad itself is blocked by running the car till warm and run your hand over the surface of the rad , any cold spots are a blockage .
After that if it still overheats you can check things like water pump, and that must be easier to get to on a front rad car .
hope this helps

[tweety]

ahh kewl
cheers
ill give it ago asap

[Bluemini]

Is your fan working/running at the right speed? Also, is you temp sender/gauge working propperly?

[marksmini]

did you get to the bottom of it??

[tweety]

No its still over heating
Im geting a new rad at the end of the month and also hopefully if i can find them, 2 motorbike fans to suk air throught the rad instead of tryin to blow
Im going to change a few pipes too as ive found some good ones off a metro that had jus had them all changed
Ill tell you how i get on
cheers

[marksmini]

good luck

so you think its the rad blocked up???

[bumblebee]

overheating! now theres a problem i havent come accross before (mwhahahaha)

right, from my past experience with my own car my fan had plastic blades on, these had a split on the shaft, with the weight of the water and the engine speed, the blades stayed still which meant no flow!

Stupid Question, is the water level correct?

also is it losing water? you might have a leak (found that one out too!)

also, how high is the gauge going? to the top?...or just slightly over the 'normal' mark?

Whilst the gauge is above normal look under the bonnet, look for signs of hissing and or bubbling coming from the cylinder head, yep, ive done that one too! turned out to be a snapped head stud, meaning the head had lifted on one corner!

did you replace the temparature sender then you did the thermostat....?

Hope you get it sorted, i was gutted when mine was playing up but still had a good day at black rock sands with woody and the yellow mini crew!

Take care
Richy

[tweety]

Well
ive had a look today and yeah there is water peeing out all over the shop (well out of 2 pipes!
The only problem is i cant get a pipe to fit from the water heated manifold to the thermostat, its either too big or too small!
This is a problem with no realy way of over coming it (anyone here no of anyplaces that make suctom hoses????
The water is always overheating, almost every morning, im for ever topping it up!
The fan on it is a bit pants really but the thing is it was fine for along time, the guy b4 me had it its only kinda recent its bin doing it!
Im gunna replace the rad and have 2 fans sucking instead of blowing, replace the piping too, because im scared of going long distance knowing that i mite get into a traffic jam and jus overheat!
Dats all i can do for now!
cheers

[bumblebee]

if you can try and bodge it so u aint using the heated manifold, just till you can find the pipes etc..

I cant actually picture what you mean though....

Rich

[marksmini]

The only problem is i cant get a pipe to fit from the water heated manifold to the thermostat, its either too big or too small!

ive got a heat mannfold, but i was advised not to plum it in because it doesnt doo much and can cause more problem, or tho i wouldnt no where to tap into anyways, possible the matrix pipe befoe entering the car, but ermm, not to sure about that

[Woody]

Have you tryed a compresion test ? it could be the head gasket .

[Bluemini]

Dont bother with the heated manifold, it doesnt make any difference in this country, the air is never cold enough to need warming...

The only pipes that should come off the thermastat cover is the big one that goes to the top of the rad (or were ever it goes on your rad) unless your using the metro cover which has two take-offs, one for the rad and the other goes to the header tank. If your not using a header tank, get rid of that cover and fit the mini cover back on.

Try taking your heater out and flushing it through incase its blocked, or try taking the pipe off the heater tap on the head and attach a hose pipe to it and switch the water on and leave it for half an hour to flush thru.

If it still aint right, check that your stat is ok and that your water pump is ok too.

And if it still aint right, you got some probs!

[tweety]

Hey
rite i took out the rad the otherday and flushed that, that actually did make a big difference. As for the water heated manifold i was having my doupts to it too, been told by a few that there useless but the only problem is that there is a nice big pipe goin into the actual car an im not too sure what that is doing in there so if any of u guys know what it is and how to take it out dat would b fab!
As for the thermostat housing yeah there are 2 stacks as its a metro, can i jus take this off and replace it with a mini one????
The question about the heater thing i take it u mean the bit that goes onto the head from the drivers side....well i dont have one, its the metro head meaning it has no propper heater (yeah i no i FREEEEEEEZE in the mornings) and its blocked off
So would it b a gud idea to drill and tap this baby and fit one or shud i jus leave it and die cold lol
Ive also had my doupts with the water pump too and also the headgasket so im going to do a compression test at college and see if it really is nakkered lol
One more thing!!!!!
What is the best oil to use on the metro engine, its the 80-90 spec engine and was thingin bout usin CASTROL GTX MAGNITEC is this worth forkin out for or is my engine jus too old????
Cheers for the help guys
arron