overheating ...damn

[Sebastian]

on the roads today ( driving normaly) i noticed the water temp around 110 degrees . i pulled over and checked .
fans working okay , there was plenty of water left , no blown fuses or bursted pipes ..

after it cooled a bit it started again to overheat .. .. so ended up parking the car at home

faulty thermostat maybe ? coolant temp sensor ? ?
also noticed the voltmeter dropping from ~ 14 v ( the other days .. ) to 12.5 -12.9 and it stays there now all the time


last week it had a major service .. all belts , water pump and all the usual stuff .

help

EDIT : noticed the water runs through the engine as is boiling hot in the bottle

[Dragonheart]

Were the belts put on properly? I had an overheating issue in my last car and it was the result of a belt coming loose and not turning therefore the water pump wasnt working properly.

[CJ]

Were the belts put on properly? I had an overheating issue in my last car and it was the result of a belt coming loose and not turning therefore the water pump wasnt working properly.

If the cambelt was loose, you'd know all about it! The aux belts sometimes need to re readjusted after changing, worth getting it checked out. Change the 'stat and the the filler cap for a start.

CJ

[Kace]

Could be related to heater matrix on the way out. Check passenger footwell for dampness.

Make sure that the car is filled to brim with water - (making sure that you're not filling into the plastic bottle of course) - is it full ?

Is it leaking under the car at all when you fill up ?

Check your oil too - if you have been running 'hot' it will have been burned off significantly.

[steelroe]

First thing is dont use water use proper coolant!

As suggested check the footwell but given these hot days I would have expected to see steam inside the car if it was burst.
Check oil for signs of coolant ingestion.
Was a new pump fitted, may well be a faulty pump.
Any coolant around the RAD cap, this may be leaking under pressure, you should see brown staining around the housing.

First thing I would do is replace the stat and refill and go from there. That engine does have a hell of a lot of mileage on it, possibly the stat has givwen up the ghost. You can test it by immersing it in hot and cold water and watch it open and close.

[steelroe]

As CJ said the waterpump on the FTO is turned with the Timing belt, if that was the prob then I would think you would be in more seriuos trouble than overheating.

[Sebastian]

checked today everything again and seemed fine. water levels are okay , there are no signs of gone gaskets , hoses are okay .. not a leak on her.
Drove it back to the garage(about 30 minute drive with plenty of mivec and hight revs and it didnt overheat at all ?!? ! ) as soon as it reached over 90 the fans were kicking in ).

might this just be a case of an air lock on the system ?

[steelroe]

What was ambient temp when you were driving, has all this hot weather anything to do with it. Might be time for a coolant change.

[Sebastian]

was a bit warm alright , but coolant was changed last week with the water pump

[steelroe]

Sounds more like an air lock after the work was carried out. It is relatively hard to get and airlock in the fto as the filler cap is the highest point of the engine. Not impossible though