Hi all, first post.
A little different from other 'Engine Overheating' threads, as this seems a little quirky.
I purchased my 197 last week and it's been a joy to drive. The garage had fitted a new radiator the morning of purchase, but every now and again I'll have an 'ENGINE OVERHEATING' message pop up. When this happens, the temperature gauge moves to about 3/4.
Here's the catch. It doesn't happen every time - I could be sat in stop/start traffic for 30 minutes and it won't appear. The last time it appeared was in a car park after 5 minutes of idling. As soon as I drove to the end of the car park (what must have been 5mph), the temperature gauge went back to normal, message disappeared, and never appeared again. This has also happened in traffic - a minute or two later will cause the gauge to drop again, and it won't appear again even if I'm in continued stop/start traffic.
If this were a thermostat issue, surely this would happen every time I'm in traffic?
I've put this down to simply air in the system; the garage could have been rushing and didn't bleed the system properly. Moving the car, even slowly, gets the pump moving the coolant around and the car returns to normal. That's far too slow and far too soon for air to cool the engine/radiator.
But I then realised that my fan never turns on. In stop/start traffic, even when the engine told me it was overheating, the fan wasn't turning on. If it were air in the system, I'm guessing it wouldn't turn on as the thermostat wouldn't be open. If it were air, the sensor would think it's overheating (message on the screen) but the radiator fan wouldn't engage (thermostat was closed, it's not actually overheating). However, I read that turning on the air conditioning should force the fan to start. This doesn't happen. No matter what I do, I can't seem to get that fan to turn on.
Possible causes then, considering the radiator was recently changed:
- Fan isn't plugged in
- Air in the system
- Sticky thermostat
I don't think it could be the fan resistor as it's not turning on at all, let alone slowly.
Any ideas of how I could problem solve this? My first thing is to re-bleed the system and see if the fan turns on. If it starts to overheat, it could be fan/thermostat.
Thanks!
A little different from other 'Engine Overheating' threads, as this seems a little quirky.
I purchased my 197 last week and it's been a joy to drive. The garage had fitted a new radiator the morning of purchase, but every now and again I'll have an 'ENGINE OVERHEATING' message pop up. When this happens, the temperature gauge moves to about 3/4.
Here's the catch. It doesn't happen every time - I could be sat in stop/start traffic for 30 minutes and it won't appear. The last time it appeared was in a car park after 5 minutes of idling. As soon as I drove to the end of the car park (what must have been 5mph), the temperature gauge went back to normal, message disappeared, and never appeared again. This has also happened in traffic - a minute or two later will cause the gauge to drop again, and it won't appear again even if I'm in continued stop/start traffic.
If this were a thermostat issue, surely this would happen every time I'm in traffic?
I've put this down to simply air in the system; the garage could have been rushing and didn't bleed the system properly. Moving the car, even slowly, gets the pump moving the coolant around and the car returns to normal. That's far too slow and far too soon for air to cool the engine/radiator.
But I then realised that my fan never turns on. In stop/start traffic, even when the engine told me it was overheating, the fan wasn't turning on. If it were air in the system, I'm guessing it wouldn't turn on as the thermostat wouldn't be open. If it were air, the sensor would think it's overheating (message on the screen) but the radiator fan wouldn't engage (thermostat was closed, it's not actually overheating). However, I read that turning on the air conditioning should force the fan to start. This doesn't happen. No matter what I do, I can't seem to get that fan to turn on.
Possible causes then, considering the radiator was recently changed:
- Fan isn't plugged in
- Air in the system
- Sticky thermostat
I don't think it could be the fan resistor as it's not turning on at all, let alone slowly.
Any ideas of how I could problem solve this? My first thing is to re-bleed the system and see if the fan turns on. If it starts to overheat, it could be fan/thermostat.
Thanks!
