1993 Corsa B 1.4 temperature gauge taking forever to get to temperature.

[Vince70]

The other day I went and bought a real little Gem of a Corsa B for a friend of mine and the car drives fantastic and has only done about 53000 miles for the princely sum of £225 and obviously she's made up with the car.

 

On the drive home though we got stuck in a traffic jam for two hours because the A27 was closed but the car behaved itself and the gauge only went up just over half way till the fans kicked in and bought the temperature back down to the half way mark till we were off again.

 

But while in the jam I did spot a Rover 200 and also a 400 and Peugeot 206 on the hard shoulder all under clouds of steam also there was an ageing Ford Ka that was broken down but I think that had just rotted out while waiting..

 

Well back on topic.. while I was driving the car I noticed once on the run the temperature gauge would rarely get up to the quarter mark on the gauge and went back down once we got up and running again and I suspect the thermostat must be stuck open and would I be right in thinking when doing a stat on one of these cars that the Cambelt has to come off..

 

I'm hoping it could be just a dodgy sensor or would just go away as I really just don't want to go through all the hassle of taking belts and pulleys off on a £225 car just to do a £3 stat.

 

I just wonder if anyone has any experience of doing a stat on one of these or if it could be a dodgy coolant temp sensor..

 

I will be draining the coolant out anyway and replacing it with nice fresh stuff in the next week anyway one way or another.

[vulgalour]

Gauge is slow on our 1.2 Corsa B too, rarely goes over halfway.  I just thought it was efficient, certainly doesn't exhibit any signs to worry about.

[twosmoke300]

It will be the stat but it's so easy to do the cambelt on those

[red5]

Yep - thermostat all the way, especially as people shy off doing them as it's behind cambelt. Should sit at 95 peaking at 100 for fan operation.

[twosmoke300]

Don't touch the water pump ffs

[Vince70]

Thanks for the info I might put the thermostat on hold as I think I would need to pluck up some courage to have a go at a belt on someone else's car especially with my limited skills and halfords tool kit..

 

Would it cause the car any harm if I forgot about the stat for awhile ..

[Cavcraft]

It's a Corsa, they're cool.

[lisbon_road]

Could be the sender.  I worried about one that registered consistently hot.  Tried various things but the sender was an instant fix.

 

I would not worry too much - fan is coming on, that is good.

[Split_Pin]

Just above or below the first mark after 90 is where it should be most of the time.

[Lacquer Peel]

Don't touch the water pump ffs

What's the crack with the water pump on these?

[beko1987]

I think thermostat too. Why not change the waterpump at the same time? Was only £35 for a 2004 1.6 vauxhall, should be pennies for a 1994 one surely? Or is there something about the job I dont know about? It fid take 40 minutes of old pump destroying hammering to get it out to be fair...

[twosmoke300]

On some early vx engines you turn the wp to tension the belt but it always bloody leaks afterwards . The trick is to not move it but muscle the belt on and hope the tension is ok . It usually is

[twosmoke300]

Or replace it as beko says

[M'coli]

What's the crack with the water pump on these?

That's what I was thinking...