A French fancy - At the metal clinic

[The Moog]

Will have another crack tomorrow then. Nothing on thermostat housing, couldn't see any on heater hoses going through fire wall.

 

Coke bottle didn't work as it wouldn't fit properly and also there is a mall hole in side of expansion bottle. Tried a funnel and that didn't work either.

 

Really annoying as should be simple job

[dollywobbler]

Did you 'burp' the coolant pipes? I've successfully bled blown XUDs in BXs by doing nothing more than parking it on a slope, so the expansion bottle is high up, then squeezing all of the pipes and giving the engine the odd rev. 

[The Moog]

Did you 'burp' the coolant pipes? I've successfully bled blown XUDs in BXs by doing nothing more than parking it on a slope, so the expansion bottle is high up, then squeezing all of the pipes and giving the engine the odd rev.

Yep tried that.

 

On 405 expansion is on the side of the radiator which is lower than the thermostat which is what causes the issues.

[dollywobbler]

Pretty similar to the non-turbo BXs then. Should still follow that if you can tilt the car enough, the expansion tank will still be higher than the stat (assuming the expansion tank is on the offside) and (in theory) the air fill find its way out.

[twosmoke300]

Deffo park nose up hill . Usually a bleeder on the top of the rad at the opposite end to the filler . Then an Allen bolt on the thermostat housing and usually a plastic disc headed bolt thingy on one or both of the heater pipes

[The Moog]

Right had another look and cant find a bleed valve

 

On thermostat housing I cant see any bleed screw. It has two sensors at front.

 

On heater hoses going through fire wall no bleed valves, followed the hoses along back to engine block and nothing obvious along there.

 

Am I missing anything obvious?

[twosmoke300]

Does the heater pipe have anything teed into it that goes up the bulkhead with a valve on the end?

[The Moog]

Does the heater pipe have anything teed into it that goes up the bulkhead with a valve on the end?

 

Nope. One hose goes parallel to engine then back to block and the other drops down and goes into a metal pipe. Both of them have less nipples than action man

[The Moog]

So been using this for a week and in about 500 miles it has drunk all its water, which isn't good.

 

I think it is boiling and coming out of rad cap so will change that but need to get it into garage asap as don't want to have omghgf.

[PiperCub]

Think it's the same engine as my 96 406TD (XUD9), did the water pump & cambelt about six months ago and recall there were at least two bleed points, one on top of the heater hose at the back of the engine bay and the other nearer the expansion tank adj to the fuel pump (I think), they are capped with what looks like tyre valve caps. But this is on a 406 not a 405 so things may be different plus mine has the Bosch pump if that makes any difference.

From experience of Pugs (the 406 & 205GTi) they are sensitive to & prone to airlocks in the cooling system so this might be your issue.  

[twosmoke300]

For what it costs I'd be tempted to take it to a local small garage and see if they can either find the bleeders or use a vacuum bleeder on it

[The Moog]

Yep I think that is next step. It needs to soldier on until civic is back working then I can hand it over.

 

Definitely no bleed points I can see. Xantia had the ones you mention but not on this pug

[The Moog]

Ok had sometime this morning so drained coolant and tried to look for bleed points. Still cant find any.

 

But when removing the hoses I noticed some of the plastic has disintegrated on thermostat housing. Also couple of clips aren't in a good state.

 

Poking some more I checked the front cooling fans and they aren't working! They should run when AC is on. Whoever put the relays in from of the radiator needs to have nettles rubbed in delicate places.

 

MOT is due august and I am going to run it until then and not spend a penny on it.

[The Moog]

Decided not to be beaten, so replaced the thermostat housing and bled the system. I spent about an hour squeezing hoses getting loads of bubbles out.

 

Then the fans kicked in, so they do work but not on low setting and AC probably needs a recharge.

 

I think that it just runs hotter than the last one. Thermostat opens at 87, fans kick in around 100 and normally sits about 90 ish.

[The Moog]

Dropped this off this morning to get the proper grown up mechanic to have a look at the ride height and the running hot.

 

Should get the test results back tomorrow. He is just going to diagnose it and let me know expected costings. If mega money may be tempted by the £400 Xm in blackburn!

[The Moog]

So garageman has passed the diagnosis of nowt wrong with her.

 

He tried running it without stat, pressure tested the cooling system and it made not a jot of difference. Only issue was ac clutch was cutting in and out so he has disabled that.

 

Ride height wise nothing obviously wrong. He checked another customers 406 and had exactly same issue. So unless I want to spend money changing front springs and struts, nothing to do.

 

Best bit was all done for free 😊

[The Moog]

In my head I had decided to James brown this once MOT is up.

 

Few issues that are obvious such as

 

Running incredibly hot

Suspension height is uneven

Hole in top of will

Front anti roll bar will need bushes

Wishbone bushes

New handbrake cables at back

New discs and pads

Lacquer peel turned up to 11

Bodywork is dented all over

Tailgate lock is half sheared off

Drivers door has dropped

Central locking is temperamental

 

Plus few other odds and ends.

 

But listening to Carlo and Junkman talk about 405 I started working out what I would replace it with. I found a Saab 95 LPG on uksaabs which I fancied but at grand an half.

 

So pondering the thought of changing the engine in the 405 (its done 245k) because of the overheating and doing the rest of the jobs to get MOT.

 

Are there any better engines that would drop straight in to the 405? If not am i better off getting xud rebuilt or a secondhand unit?

[Noel Tidybeard]

90* IS normal- most thermostats dont open till around 88 so how can less than 90 be normal?

 

with a/c off civic space ship sits around 88-92, poojoe 208 sits at just over 90 mark on gauge (we have 10 of these so the cant all be wrong)

[The Moog]

The issue is more it climbs to over 105 to 110 pretty quickly under any load.

 

At 70 on motorway it sits 95. Xud do like a hgf when they over heat so I get a bit paranoid.

 

Currently taken the stat out and it will still heat up mega quickly

[r.welfare]

The problem is that these are old cars now and most are getting on for being terminally shagged, as I think you have found with your last two. That's a long list and I personally would look hard for a better replacement than repair it. How long is the MOT? I'd be scrutinising eBay and the French Car Forum regularly.

[The Moog]

MOT is beginning of August so a while yet.

 

Your probably right to keep an eye out.

 

I might be the lucky* winner of a gold punto tonight

[jonathan_dyane]

What makes you think that it's engine problems causing the hot running? Far more likely to be a clogged/silted up radiator.

[The Moog]

What makes you think that it's engine problems causing the hot running? Far more likely to be a clogged/silted up radiator.

Had a brand new radiator 6 months ago.

 

One of previous owners was a mechanic so he did everything and kept receipts for it all.

[Vince70]

It does make you wonder why he sold it after just putting a new radiator in a car that's relatively cheap to own and the car is still overheating .

 

Any sign of mayonnaise.. I hope not but it might be K seal time.