EVEN MORE HOT AND BOTHERED!

Well, where do i start!

Day 1 of ownership of my mint GTA turbo (30 mins to be exact) I lost all coolant as a turbo hose had split. Good old Paul Sage sorted it out and all was well

Several weeks later the engine overheated again, this time it was the fuse. Changed the fuse and all was well for a few days.

Finally, it overheated AGAIN! This time the fan has been replaced and new coolant and a roadtest, all sorted (or so I thought!). Five miles from the garage it overheated yet again again again....

I'm at my wits end, oh and my bank balance is feeling the same.

Obviously the problem lies elsewhere! Corroded water pump, silted radiator, or head gasket. My money is on the radiator ( I have to say that as have had the same problems and already replaced water pump - am in denial re it being the head gaskets. Hope to get radiator out tomorrow. Will let you know.

I agree ,its most likely the rad .If it suddenly stops blowing hot the most probable cause is a blockage .

I had a similar problem, albeit not on a GTA, and it turned out to be simply the thermostat sticking closed. I changed it and hey presto it was fine. Ran the car for another 15,000 miles with no problems.

When you say your car heater suddenly starts blowing cold, is there still fluid in the system? Regards the thermostat if at all in doubt remove it and run your car without, it will just run cooler and be slightly less efficient,(ref checking it place in boiling water and see if it opens or not.) With regard to head gasket allow to tick over with cap off, if suddenly starts to pressurise and water blasts out(this is a bad sign). Ref my last it sometimes requires the car to get up to operating temperature to open cracks gaps in gasket head etc). What is your temperature gauge saying?

Apologies for this very gloomy story but.......my Omega had similar problems recently....started getting hot, splitting pipes and costing me a fortune (replaced radiator, junked the thermostat and replaced a water pipe).....the reason......start of a blown head gasket! The compression from the engine was getting into the water cooling system causing a big pressure build up (hence the blown hoses). You could tell it was happening by taking the car on a short drive so that it started to warm up then taking the top of the coolant top up tank......huge release of pressure and almost instant bubbling and overflowing!

Thanks for the good advice everyone. The radiator is good and was removed when the fan was fitted. I think it could be the fan switch thingy, thermostat, or possibly even the heater matrix?

When it overheated the fan wasn't spinning even though it had been replaced, don't think it's the headgasket as i'm not losing/mixing any oil or water.

My technical abilities are very limited, I know how things work in theory but crap at fixing things.

Does anyone know a garage in London/greater London that can investigate this annoying problem and is nearer than ARR in SE London??? Does DG service/repair or just make the cars go faster??!

Appreciated, exhausted, skint.

Hello again, one sure way of finding the cause of your problems is to phone the man who can. Over the years i have found the AA very useful in diagnosing a multitude of faults. ref your last post you say the fan did not cut in and you are not losing coolant? what leads you to believe you are overheating? Because if you were the water would be bubbling out of the expansion tank....
Therefore loss of fluid.
If you believe the thermostat on the engine to be at fault remove it(on start up this is closed until the engine gets up to operating temperature it then opens and allows water to go to the front radiator), it is located in the centre of the v with all the water pipes going to it, take the lid of and remove refit. If you believe the temperature bulb on the radiator to be at fault remove the cable from it and short circuit the cables together this will put the fan on constantly. But it may just be the gauge which are know to give false inaccurate readings if this is the case bring it to the ace meet and get ask Mr David gentlemen to kindly check it out with his diagnostic tool.

Does anyone know a garage in London/greater London that can investigate this annoying problem and is nearer than ARR in SE London??? Does DG service/repair or just make the cars go faster??!

Appreciated, exhausted, skint.

Yes, service, and repair, and as most know, fault diagnosis is my speciality

Finding the fault on your car won't be a problem.

[stephendell]

As the fan wasn't running when it boiled, try bridging the fan thermo switch so it runs permanently.

If the car still overheats then that's not your problem

Will be bridging the fan at the weekend. However, after the way i was spoken to today I'm not a happy Alpinist... (and I should have been the one that was unhappy). ALPINE RIDICULOUSLY RUDE

The mystery continues. Bridged the fan so it's on all the time and it's still overheating!!!

Don't think it's the headgasket as not using any/mixing oil or water.

Next step remove the thermostat???

Open the bleed screw next to the rad and check hot water is actually coming out of it first, if its cold then you'll know youve either got an air lock or the thermostat is stuck closed.

Cheers David, just unscrewed it and cold water is coming out...

Incidentally, what does the thermostat look like??

Its inside here