here it is first post on overheating from me

[rallyeluke]

Hi people.


My girlfriend just bought a puma black and its a great deal of fun, problem is she is overheating.


Now the problem is:

Im driving along at a normal speed and engine gets up to operating temp in about ten mins then will sit at half way on the gauge for about half an hour then suddenly start fluctuating between half way and in the red (fan kicks in to try its hardest to keep it cool)

then eventually it will just sit in the red at which point i switch her off to avoid possible damage.


Now in my opinion from working with cars for a fair few years its going to be one of a number of things.

1. possible air lock
2. sticky thermostat
3. water pump damage (ie pulley is spinning and sometimes pump inside is not spinning)


i have done multiple searchs and have seen alot of threads with puma's overheating.


just after anyones opinions?




great site brilliant car amazing handling (stupid design though, the engine layout i mean, thermostat behind alternator is not a stroke of genius lol)

 

[red]

Does the heater work correctly or is it constantly hot / cold?

Thermostats have been known to fail.
From memory this is can also be a symptom of a Heater Control Valve failing?

Number 3 seems unlikely, surely a damaged water pump will leak?

 

[Dal]

My money would be on the thermostat.
A broken HCV would just divert / not divert the water from the engine system and shouldn't effect the car overheating or not. The HCV is just a bypass valve at the end of the day.

 

[jacko]

iv had a dodgy hcv affect the overall temp....god knows iv tried figuring out y or how tho...

my monies on the thermostat definetely....mine gave me 2 weeks notice of pratting about before it really died. (iv done a thread on changing it....)

i would def do the hcv while your at it tho....& consider the hcv a 'consumable' & prob change everytime you do the sparkplugs etc.....)

use good water too, iv used my tap water (really crappy round here) & its caused issues with the stat & hcv

you will get airlocks after uv changed them, have a read of my thread; its common sense stuff which u sound like ud know but still worth a read


has anyone had a water pump on a zetec se fail yet? iv not heard of one....

 

[YOG]

has anyone had a water pump on a zetec se fail yet? iv not heard of one....

You have now! Mine was leaking at under 6,000 miles and other people's have leaked as well.

 

[jacko]

balls!

 

[mikey s]

I've had my standard 1.7 overheating like this before. I followed a thread on how to get rid of an air lock... reving the engine slightly with the radiator cap off, topping up water where needs be and putting the cap back on whilst the engine is still running.

This has sorted the problem. The weird thing now is that it seems to run quite cool, as in below half way on the thermostat; even when the engine has been running for a while.

 

[Dal]

has anyone had a water pump on a zetec se fail yet? iv not heard of one....

You have now! Mine was leaking at under 6,000 miles and other people's have leaked as well.

I wouldn't call a 'leak' a 'fail'. A fail would be the shaft snapping.

 

[BOK]

A broken HCV would just divert / not divert the water from the engine system and shouldn't effect the car overheating or not. The HCV is just a bypass valve at the end of the day.

It will if it's one of the faulty manufactured ones that restricts the flow through the divert due to being manufactured with the bore too small.

 

[YOG]

Dictionary:
Main Entry: fail
Part of Speech: verb
Definition: To cease functioning properly.

 

[Dal]

Surely it's the the gasket that has failed, not the pump.