Down in the Dumps

[Andy Dawson]

I can't believe it!! for the 2nd time it looks like my head has gone
Was on the way to Wales last weekend, tanking along between 80-90 in 27 degrees of outside heat when the temp gauge gave a twitch. I slowed down to 70 and things seamed ok. Took it steady to a service station - checked water level and radiator for pressure - all apeared ok apart from the water in the expansion tank having gone black!
I've been watching the temp gauge like a hawk since then and my baby definately has 'head gone' symptoms.
She will be back off to the garage as soon as I can. I know I should be able to get it fixed under warenty, but what do I do then?
I don't want to carry on with a vehicle that keeps blowing heads, but what could I replace it with?

Just in case you haven't guessed - this is not one of my better weeks!

By the way she is a 3.0L manual with 62K on the clock, not a 2.4 - -this shouldn't be happening to me

[TonyN]

I don't want to carry on with a vehicle that keeps blowing heads, but what could I replace it with?

Get them to fix it properly this time!

Honestly mate, 3.0's don't keep blowing heads unless there is another underlying problem, they are honestly strong motors, I've had Linda's 3.0 2nd gen at the start of the red zone no end of times while towing other Surfs around on a trailer up hills for the last year, did again last night with Snoops truck, and its still alive.

About 2 years ago, Linda's truck blew a headgasket out of the blue, I fixed that and its been happy ever since.

[DaveD]

I blame Wales........My rad went pop around the coast road at Conwy.......

[Koi]

Agree with Tony, got to be another problem causing this. High speeds equals more load on the engine so needs more cooling. Check rad for blockages, both inside & out, viscous fan operating correctly. MAybe air lock after last repair, were both heaters getting hot?????

[firefly]

have to say i had my tem as far into the red as anyone would want to go towing my van up a hill and like an idiot i held it in 2nd and reved the nadgers of the poor little thing and had no problems after, apart from heart palputations,
tem does rise slightly when putting the car under load especially towing up hill, i usually put the fan on full blast and open a window, soon goes down.....

[Chiko]

it wasn't until this last post that I realised "into the red" was reffering to the temp gauge and not the rev counter!! Its going to take a while to get used to not having an 8500rpm redline to head for.

[Andy Dawson]

It's off to the garage this afternoon to get checked over. Not sure what may be cause this trouble - think it could be the lower half of the radiator vanes being bent in.

Will look at fitting an electric fan later this year I think and investing in a new radiator.

As for the other bits - Fan is turning ok, feels quite stiff when engine is warm (a good thing I think)

More news to come as it happens.