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Its come to that point when Im totally not happy with my car, even selling has crossed my mind.

Today my warning light came on as the car was overheating, the temperature was on the max... would've probably went more but it run out of space.

My radiator (or what ever it is upfront thats meant to cool the temperature down) doesn't seem to be working. Could it be down to that?
Also is it possible that the spark plugs aint trasfering electricity to it so maybe they need changing...?
Also another possibility im told could be (thermosat??) its inside one of the pipes near the engine (thermomiter??)

If anyone could forward some wisdom my way would be appreciated.

Also it heats up to the max in about 10-15 mins time. & does anybody know what the normal temp should be at... It was always in the line bang in the middle.

Many Thanks!

I am no expert but dont drive your car if its over heating. You will kill the engine and then you will be without a Polo

Overheating could be due to a number of factors

(i) - Do you have enough oil in the engine? Check on dip stick and top up if necessary

(ii) - Is there enough coolant in the system? Should be between upper and lower marks on the expansion tank. If your loosing coolant this needs to be checked out.

(iii) - The water pump could be faulty and not circulating - If this were the case the needle would reach maximum VERY quickly.

(iv) - The thermometer could be stuck closed (my money is on this) The best way to check this is run the engine from cold. The upper hose to the radiator will get hot within a couple of minutes. The lower hose from the radiator should begin to get warm around the time the temp needle reaches the usual level. If the lower hose doesn't get warm and the temperature needle continues to rise, you have a fault with the thermometer.

good luck

Thanks for your reply.

I just spoke to my dads friend on the phone whos a mechanic and he mentioned 3 & 4 above as posibilities.

Also he mentioned something about the "head gasket" (but my phone was breaking up so I didnt understand him clearly)which seems to be a bit extreme to me but is this also another posibility?

Anyone know a rough price guide I'll be looking at for either the water pump, thermomemeter and head gasket? Just so I know how much am I looking at caughing up this week.

Thanks again!

Could be the head gasket - if your coolant level is low VERY LOW. A head gasket failure is a catastophic event where coolant is leaking into the engine cylinder and being expelled though the exhaust system. the lack of coolant will cause the overheading you're seeing. If the symptoms you describe have been occuring over the last few days and it takes 10 minutes or so to 'over heat' and the coolant level isn't dangerously low - i'd think its jus the thermometrt (£15 -plus 30min labour))

Head gasket (£45 - plus 3-4 hours labour)

water pump - not sure

Thanks very much mate... much appreciated

Hey, Mysteryboy.

I had what may have been a similar problem with my 16v. Seems like Gazza's already covered most of the possibilities, but another thing to check is the thermostat housing. Admittedly, if this has gone your thermostat will probably be knackered too.

The thermostat on the Polo is like a pin protruding from a brass cylinder. When the engine gets to temperature, the pin extends out of the cylinder, pushes against the housing and moves the whole cylinder out of the way of the flow (as I understand it). I'm not sure how well I've explained that. Anyway, if the housing has a hole in it, the pin pushes through the hole and nothing moves.

There's a link to a picture of my broken housing below. The small point in the very middle where the light's coming through - that shouldn't be a hole...

http://img136.imageshack.us/my.php?imag ... ng24gc.jpg

I went through a couple of thermostats before I realised this. A new housing is less than a tenner I think.

Could be worth a look.

Hope you get it sorted,

Andrew

Thanks Andrew!

It's gonna be hard not being able to drive till the weekend

Well its bad news for me... Head Gasket is gone.
I am getting the new head gasket, new cambelt, new trermostat & housing, alternator belt....

So it's gonna be an expensive weekend. So far about £100 on parts alone.
Mechanic is outside fiddling, doing his thing,... The whole engine is out... Looks messy..lol

Thanks for all the help & input above.

If it's not to late, get the mechanic to check th state of the water pump, make sure it's in good nick. The pump went on mine and took the head gasket with it. Had to change the pump, head gasket, water temperature sender all in one go. The last thing you would need is to change the gasket, put everything back only to find the water pump is screwed.

All done & Checked. Literally done 10 mins ago.

Cheers Mate!

Christ, bad news man.

Glad to hear you've got it sorted though

Yeah cheers man... Thanks for your post about the housing. At least I knew the mechanic wasn't chating crap.

(Head gasket cost £13.40 lol... its the labour that cleaned me out.)

yeah when i had the hg done on my punto before it got written off it was expencive

£25 head skim
£15 Head Gasket
coolant and oil £50
£150 labour.

Yeah the parts dont cost all that much...

Can anyone tell me if the head gasket should be going so early as my car is only showing 62k on the clock... Unless they're not genuine miles

(Just something I been told by the mechanic that done the work/ made me raise my eyebrows)