Hi people I've read a lot of heater issues on here but none fully match the problem I'm having.
So it's a 1.25 zetec. On Tuesday I noticed my heaters where only blowing cold air then half way home (driven about 5 miles) the temp gauge hit red. Had a look under the bonnet and the coolant was boiling away but not coming out.
AA came out 2 hours later and car had cooled down, he followed me home and all was fine. He said the thermostat could have failed to open and get it replaced.
I replaced it yesterday, put the old 1 in boiling water and it didn't open so figured that was it.
This morning the temp gauge never went past M so no problems there but now my heaters are only hot when driving as soon as I stop they blow cold.
We did lose some coolant changing the stat but I topped that back up.
I've noticed heater control valve mentioned a lot on here and wanted to know if any one has experience of this type of issue?
Thanks in advance.
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When the AA came out we warmed the car up and he checked the temperature of the hoses and said they was fine.
He also did another test with some blue liquid in a tube that he put in the header tank. He said it would test if the head gasket had gone and that was fine.
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Are you saying that the engine temperature is not reaching normal? If so I would suggest that your new thermostat is faulty. If the temperature is OK but the heat only come on when you are pushing it a bit, it sounds as though you have air in the heater circuit, remove the heater return hose (top one) with the engine off, top up the coolant until it flows from both ends and reconnect. Or loosen bleed screw if it has one.
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Thanks for the reply.
Yeah temperature seems ok now. It's getting to the M of normal so pretty bang in the middle. Air in the system would make sense it could have happened when we replaced the stat.
I'm a little new at this. So you're saying I should remove the heater return hose, remove the cap from the header tank and pretty much put coolant through until it comes out of the hose and then re-connect? I have no idea if it as a bleed screw or not.
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Check the hoses where they go through the bulkhead, if there is a bleed screw you should be able to see it. If not, undo the clip and pull the top hose off, fill the header tank to the top and provided the pipes are lower than the tank, water should run out of the pipe you have removed and the one it was connected to, once the water flows out without any air bubbles, reconnect the pipe - keep topping the header tank up while you are doing this, leave the top off and the engine off.
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Thanks for clarifying that for me. Much appreciated. I'll give it a go this weekend when I've got some daylight to work in.
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On a related note -- is it normal for there to be any air in the coolant hoses?
Reason i ask is i've recently replaced the stat on my car and the hose from radiator to stat definately is mostly air. Give the hose a squeeze and a shoogle and you can hear the coolant sloshing about.
Coolant reservoir seems to be the highest point in this car so i was thinking i'd just leave it and hopefully it'd sort itself out over time if it needs to, or it would just be this way forever more if it doesn't matter.
Just looking for confirmation it'll be fine but i check it daily just now (only changed on sunday) and i cant find any issues with this so far...
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Check the top hose where it goes to the radiator, there may be a bleed screw there, otherwise any air thats left should eventually find its way to the header tank so just check the level from time to time.
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Ok update on this. I haven't got round to trying what Peter said yet but problem seemed to rectify last night.
Heaters where hot when stationery the temp gauge was below half way when idling and didn't go much above when driving. The fan is working, all the hoses and radiator are getting hot and fluid is getting round the engine (I could see the levels drop in the header tank when revving)
For most of my journey this morning it was also fine but then 2 minutes from work the heaters went cool and temp gauge started to rise. After a minute it was back to normal again!
I'm starting to think this could be electrical and a connecter is loose or something. Any advice would be much appreciated.
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Sounds like a water circulation problem, if its not air in the system it could be the water pump. Its not loosing water while you are driving is it?
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I've driven it a few times since the other night and it's been fine. Maybe there was still a bit of air in the system. Fingers crossed. I've checked the coolant everyday and it's not lost a drop since the other day when it pushed the air through an I needed to put a litre in.
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Sounds a lot like an air lock to me. Try and purge air from the system again, and keep a close eye on the level. Shouldn't take much more than that.
My Ford also has the word "N O R M A L" on the coolant temp gauge, in this cold weather it only reaches between "N" and "O" rather than its usual position between "R" and "M", could this be affecting yours too?
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next to the filler cap is a small bore pipe. follow this to the other end and it fits to the manifold remove the pipe and you will probably find the aluminium pipe it fits to is blocked with sh~t poke it out with a drill or a woodscrew or allen key this pipe vents the air from the manifold and makes filling up a lot easier if the system is not full your heater will not work correctly - hope this helps let me know
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sorry i said manifold when i should have said cylinder head!
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