Astra Help!

[gizmo10119]

Following on from an earlier thread of mine i now have possesion of a P reg astra 1.6 8v convertible, its done 61k with fsh etc in pretty good nick really.

The problem i have is it keeps overheating, went to pick it up tonight, drove 8 miles and it went to the red.

where should i start??? apparenlty the guy i brought it from has had the water pump, fan switch, radiator cap, thermostat, and a blockage cleared from one of the channels???

i have to presume the above is turd and that nothing had been done.

I have just towed this back from norwich so i wanted to start thinking about where to look first!

any help from the technically and mechanically minded will be welcomed with beer and stuff lol.

[GARY3306]

Well I would start with the fan switch first, that's the usual culprit. but something else you should try is top the coolant in the expansion tank up to the top, get an empty milk or coke bottle and fill it right to the top with water. Now run the engine with the cap off and when it's warmed up a bit, quickly invert the bottle and plunge the neck of the bottle into the expansion tank so that all the water doesn't run out lol. Now get somebody to rev the engine and watch for air bubbles in the bottle. If there are any Head gasket's gone mate. Good luck

[Karl]

in that sort of mileage you would have to think head gasket (ie within 8 miles)

[john_k_sri]

in that sort of mileage you would have to think head gasket (ie within 8 miles)

Indeedy. I speak from experience. Known problem with that range of Astra. Once you get overheating problems it's the beginning of the end IMO. Before I gave my old 'N' reg 1.4 8v Astra away to my nephew, I'd started to have problems with the thermostat, which was replaced, but after I'd passed it on it blew 2 head gaskets in 3 years...game over.

Those old Astras just love to be driven enthusiatically.......as I did mine, but you pay for it in the end I used to drool over the 2 litre Sport from that range, and the girl who was driving it, on one occasion!

Having said that, could be just a faulty thermostat, as the mileage is less than average for 11 years. Good luck mate

[LJ sxi-nav]

My 94 Astra suffered overheating problems twice; 1st time was head gasket; changed that and all fine after (not too difficult a job iirc). Second time was my fault! Messing around under the bonnet with something and had disconnected the fan, Sat stuck in traffic a little later and saw the neadle rise to the red! pulled over, noticed the lead was disconnected; pushed it back in and temp dropped quite quickly.

Moral 1 - Don't tinker under the bonnet
Moral 2 - If you ignore moral 1, make sure when you finish tinkering you check, double check and triple check everything is in place!!!

I did have a thermostat go; but I thought they all failed in the open position?? consequence was the car never got hot at all. Needle hardly moved.

[gizmo10119]

thanks for your comments guys, i had a spare 20 mins at lunch so went home and started it up, it rose to its normal operating temp like 85 i think, sat there for ages, the fan never came on, left it and left i then it began to rise further still no fan

so i hope its either the fan switch or the fan itself, ill investigate further this evening hopefully fingers crossed its no the head gasket! doesnt blow white smoke, no mayo and water looks good.

[Big Sig]

Didn't the dealer agree to fix it for you in your other thread?

[gizmo10119]

yes he did , hes not a dealer more of a trader from home, apparently its had all sorts done to it, i picked it up last night to find 8 miles down the road nothing had really changed so i thought bu99er this im not waiting another 2 weeks ill fix the bl00dy thing myself!

[gizmo10119]

ok so i have had a play with the car tonight, started off with the fan switch, disconnected the plug and stuck a joining wire in and hey presto the fan comes on, im not sure what temp these engines are supposed to run at but it seems to sit quite happily at 95! is that too hot??
my suspision is that the rad is knackered, the fan switch looks as new so i havent changed it, was thinking if the rad is blocked somewhere and the water near the sensor is not getting hot enough to trigger the fan?
i say this as one of the pipes at the top of the rad does not get hot?
any ideas?

[nutron]

Does the radiator itself get hot? If so then the fluid must be flowing through it, if not then there's no flow and it may be a blockage or the pump.