Urgent! - 1.4 MPI Overheating

jrw · Post by **jrw** » Sun May 29, 2005 11:21 pm

Can anyone help me?

My Dad's 1.4 MK3 golf is overheating (through expansion tank, light on dash etc) yet the radiator is stone cold.

Could this be the head gasket or something?

The oil cap is gunged up with creamy stuff but has been for over a year and assumed this was down to my mum doing just 2miles a day in the week. No coolant has been lost either.

Anyone got any guesses?

Tahrey1043 · Post by **Tahrey1043** » Sun May 29, 2005 11:59 pm

first guess would be your thermostat is stuck
second is maybe your knackered gasket is to blame for this..

bstardchild · Post by **bstardchild** » Mon May 30, 2005 12:25 am

Tahrey1043 wrote:first guess would be your thermostat is stuck
second is maybe your knackered gasket is to blame for this..

^ what he said first

Or

water pump impeller has corroded away

Or

someones been heavy handed with rad weld

inder · Post by **inder** » Mon May 30, 2005 8:31 am

"The oil cap is gunged up with creamy stuff but has been for over a year"

has the oil been changed??

jrw · Post by **jrw** » Mon May 30, 2005 9:53 am

Thought it might be the gasket but wouldn't you be losing water and it would be making it to the rad then as well wouldn't it?

Sounds like it could be the water pump. Will go and inspect in a bit.

bstardchild · Post by **bstardchild** » Mon May 30, 2005 10:32 am

jrw wrote:Thought it might be the gasket but wouldn't you be losing water and it would be making it to the rad then as well wouldn't it?

Sounds like it could be the water pump. Will go and inspect in a bit.

Thermostat first

Hose temps to and from rad should give it away if it is whats at fault

jrw · Post by **jrw** » Mon May 30, 2005 10:36 am

The thermo leading into the engine was done a few months ago as the housing was leaking.

The pipe into engine is red hot and pipe leading out to rad is stone cold

Tahrey1043 · Post by **Tahrey1043** » Mon May 30, 2005 2:29 pm

sounds like nothings getting to your radiator = temperature not being reduced = thermostat not opening

possibly it got damaged when you put it in, or has gone wrong since. maybe some other problem has caused it to gunge. one simple rule i got taught a long time ago may be of use here - never assume the new part is going to be perfectly ok simply because it's new. Duff things do get manufactured and slip past QC from time to time.

Plus if you've been getting cream on your filler for that long i'd have had the engine checked out long ago...

Gareth_GT_Hatch · Post by **Gareth_GT_Hatch** » Mon May 30, 2005 4:08 pm

you can get crap inside the rocker cover just due to condensation. I dunno why but my GT is notorious for this, it never uses any coolant though. Id have to agree with everyone else. change the thermostat first (a cheap and easy but messy job)

jrw · Post by **jrw** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 10:14 am

bstardchild wrote:
Tahrey1043 wrote:first guess would be your thermostat is stuck
second is maybe your knackered gasket is to blame for this..
^ what he said first

Or

water pump impeller has corroded away

Or

someones been heavy handed with rad weld

It was the impeller on the water pump asa it was the original crappy plastic one! New water pump cambelt and vbelt at a cost of Â£184

bstardchild · Post by **bstardchild** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 10:37 am

jrw wrote:It was the impeller on the water pump asa it was the original crappy plastic one! New water pump cambelt and vbelt at a cost of Â£184

Result....... At least it's fixed now!!!

Tahrey1043 · Post by **Tahrey1043** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 11:18 am

wow, there's a new one to add to the list of possible symptoms... the PLASTIC blades corroded?

*gets paranoid and goes off checking water pump as pipes are and old thermostat was full of orangey cack*

jrw · Post by **jrw** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 3:34 pm

They were plastic on the originals but VW changed the replacements to metal ones as and when they went as I suppose it was too much of a big job to recall them!