Hi just got the vehicle and after about 15 minutes driving it starts to overheat it does cool down when left ticking over and it doesnt seem to overheat if left idling for any length of time, I cannot find any sign of oil in the water or vice versa the engine sounds sweet and seems to pull ok, its a 1990/1 diesel turbo, does anyone know a descent dealer/mechanic local to me south yorks who could look at it please all help appreciated. - (#229) neil stone, 27 May 01

Check the colour of your anti freeze. When I got mine, it was the colour of muddy water. If that's the case, drain the system, top up with ordinary water and run for 10 minutes, flush again, then fill will the correct ratio of anti freze and water. Try either replacing the thermostat, or even running without one for a few days. If it still overheats without the thermostat, it may be a problem within the core of the radiator, and a replacement, ( or better, a rad. rebuild ) is called for. If there's no oil in the water, of visa versa, it's unlikely to be a cylinder head
problem. Also, Flash a torch at the front of the engine, I take it all your belts are intact ? - (#231) Kevin Savage, 28 May 01

If you fail to clear the problem yourself, I take mine to Autopoint at Brimington, Chesterfield. Shouldn't be too far from you. They have worked on another Townie besides mine so seem pretty experienced with them. They certainly know all about head gaskets as I had leaking coolant problems in March and they fixed it ok. They can get most parts quickly as I gave them a contact in Derby. Incidentally, the head gasket has now been upgraded due to the frequent failures experienced by owners. Not that I want to frighten everyone ....
Ian - (#234) Ian Dunse, 28 May 01

Just found your awsome web-site. Could not beleve that there are so many owners of these vans around!
I've got an overheating problem. My only question is
Does the '84 Liteace (eng
2Y) have a water pump? If so, How do you change it?
Once the van is running for about 10 minutes, The hoses (top and return) get pressurized and the engine gets hot (boling) but the water doesn't seem to be circulating. The radiator is not clogged (I can blow through the whole system).
Thanking you in advance!
pjc - (#1841) Paul Cowhick, 7 Jan 02

The water pump is driven by the cam balt, and is fitted to the front of the engine- it includes the injection pump front mounting. Have you changed the thermostat (bottom hose connection), as that could cause the same symptoms? - (#1845) david miller, 8 Jan 02

Hi! I own a 1991 1.5 lite ace, my main problem is overheating,ive alreadytemp sending unit, change radiator( 3 rows), had a top overhaul ,changed head gasket, got the fan fixed,change radiator cap to 16lbs. gauge, but it still kept overheating,and the temp rise much faster when i turn the A/C on. Please help me.

- (#3488) Jerry, 24 Jun 02

Thermostat? Collapsing bottom hose?

- (#3490) david miller, 24 Jun 02

I've hunted through ace answers and can't seem to find the answer to this one, so I hope someone out there may be able to help. I've got a 1987 4WD Master Ace "surf" minibus, after driving about 50 miles the engine temperature starts climbing rapidly. Water can be heard boiling through the expansion bottle, obviously under some pressure as the bottle shakes wuite considerably. The water boils almost completely dry by the time the engine is cool. Refilling gets us another 50-60 miles before same again. Though there is no obvious sign of a leak, and no white smoke from the exhaust. A new radiator has been fitted recently so I tend to discount this as the cause. My thoughts are a slight hose leak, which only manifests itself under pressure, but I've no Idea how to progress this theory. Any ideas???

- (#4008) dunky, 27 Jul 02

Rad cap, followed by... Head gasket!!
:-(
- (#4009) david miller, 27 Jul 02

Is the boiling / water loss dependant on the speed of your 50 miles. Does it only boil at higher speeds eg motorway, or does it overheat doing a similar journey around town or ticking over for 20 / 30 minutes.

- (#4012) Mark, 27 Jul 02

As David says, could be Rad CAp, or the dreaded head gasket failure, but also symptoms could be caused by a thermostat stuck closed.

- (#4013) Rob Drinkwater, 27 Jul 02

when i switch off my celica I can hear bubbling water in the expansion bottle,thermostat been removed& still does it,any suggestions?Is head gasket common problem on these or is water pump likely to be dodgy

- (#4043) nick, 31 Jul 02

I bought a Townace Royal Lounge 2ltr Diesel back in late September and everything was fine until a couple of weeks ago when it started overheating. I nursed it home from work with all the heaters on full blast, they were however only blowing out cold air. This did make the temerature guage drop slightly. I checked the water level in the expansion tank when it had cooled down and it didn't appear to have lost any. I booked it into a local garage earlier this week to have it checked out. After performing a pressure test the garage informed me they could not find anything wrong. However when they took it for a test drive it overheated (off the scale) within a mile and a half. They now suspect that the head gasket is gone. Does this sound right? I informed them of the radiator cap scenario as metioned on this site but, they insisted that for an engine to get that hot in such a short space of time it had to be the head gasket.Is it worth changing the radiator cap anyway just in case?
I've asked them for a quote to do the head gasket, but I'm not that confident of their ability to do a good job for a reasonable price. They mentioned difficulty of access, dificulty in getting spares for an imported vehicle etc. Can anyone recommend somewhere ( in the Taunton, Somerset area)I can take it, firstly for a second opinion and secondly for the head gasket.

- (#6257) John Mathias, 28 Nov 02

John,
Look in the Ace Answers lists and you will find lots of information regarding overheating and the various tests which can be done. Yes, there is some slight inacessability but, a good workshop can cope with that and I would politely suggest that your local garage are putting forward excuses so that they can load the bill, before making a thorough investigation. Accessability is really no worse than many other vehicles. Spares are NO problem and your local garage are, I think, being less than honest and, obviously, have not made any enquiries re spares etc.
The expansion tank level, correct when cool, might be misleading. As the engine cools, some of that "expanded" coolant should be drawn back into the main cooling system and, this might not have been happening, over some time, with the result that the main coolant volume is/was seriously low. Yes, a new rad/filler cap and a VERY careful check on the small hoses which discharge into, and draw back from, the expansion tank, is a first step. Also, when the engine is cold, start it up with the rad/filler cap off. Top the coolant up to the neck of the filler and at LOW throttle openings, see if the coolant spurts out from the filler neck. There will be some slight turbulence but, if you raise the engine speed slightly, and there is a fairly robust discharge of coolant, it could be that cylinder pressure is "crossing over" into the waterways, possible via a faulty head gasket. There are other checks to make, ie, thermostat faulty and, if fitted, the viscous fan coupling.
Sorry, I can't help with any recommendations for a good, professional, Townace conversant, garage in your area.

- (#6258) John Davis, 28 Nov 02

I have read through the arcives but cant see my prob. I have 1995 townace royal lounge starts to over heats only when the heating is put on in the rear ok when switched of.

- (#11217) viv, 20 Oct 03 3:58

Hi Viv.
This sounds like an odd fault. The rear heater always has hot coolant running through it, so in theory turning the blower on shouldn't make any difference to the temperature. there are some possibilities though. If you have climate control, it may be that its trying to heat and cool at the same time, although I've never heard of this happening before. Another possibility is that there is an electrical fault that is causing the temperature gauge to read unusually high, even though the coolant is not hotter than normal.
Have you checked the coolant level recently?

- (#11218) dave Bright, 20 Oct 03 8:59

sounds like the return pipe from the heater is shutting the stat a bit (it re-joins the main system close to the stat- so after going round the heater matrix - which in your case being the rear heater one, means its getting the attention of the blower fan when turned on,its a bit cooler and the stat senses this and shuts a bit - after market ones can shut more than a bit unfotunately- hence the temp rise ). I would try changing the stat for the toyota one despite the cost, i dont find the aftermarket ones very consistant
yours jim

- (#11316) j adgo, 22 Oct 03 16:39

having received answers on this board and discovering bbc spares i mentioned my overheating problem to them and they have said it sound like a blocked rad or at worst a cracked head. I do have an oil leak although this looks like its coming from the gearbox.

My symptons are - heater goes cold on long journeys, water and steam is coming out of the rubber tube from the white plastic water container. On saturday after returning from london all the warning lights came on and the car just died. It started again after a while and once i had managed to put some water in it. I bought a thermostat as i am not used to these cars where the hell is it situated (in laymans terms)?

Help

- (#11269) david mearns, 23 Oct 03 17:22

Check rad, rad cap, hose's including the one in the expansion tank. Worse case head gasket.
Thermo in bottom hose housing, remove the housing and there it is in the block. Be sure to get the Toyota one that is made to fit.

- (#11270) Clive, 24 Oct 03 2:30

Coolant and steam are exiting the expansion tank because the coolant is boiling, and this can be for a number of reasons. Best advise is to start with the radiator cap, the one to go for is a proper Toyota one rated at 0.9 Bar or 13.5 Psi. The best one has a float on the inside. Part number is on the online Ace hand book.

The most important advise I can give is that if your head is not cracked yet, it soon will be if the overheating is not sorted in good time. If the head is cracked, and yours is a diesel, then an indication is that the coolant will gradually turn black. As this is a recent purchase, it still begs the question, is there any warranty on it? if there is, take it back. Like Clive says, if it is a cracked head you could be looking at a bill upwards of £1,000

If it only overheats on long runs, the likelihood is that its the Viscous coupling that drives the main cooling fan, and that's difficult to test. With a cold engine it should be stiff to turn with your finger. Turn it enough, and you should feel it loosening up a bit. It always turns when the engine is running, it partially idles normally, then is mostly driven, but never locked to the engine speed, when the radiator gets hot enough to trigger the sensor on the front of the fan. When it does there is a V8 type roar, but you will only here that with the engine revving above 3000rpm, and that's the sort of speed when it starts to fail.

Failing all of the above, there will be a leak somewhere, so a pressure test to the cooling system may be in order.

- (#11271) dave Bright, 24 Oct 03 4:36

For the past two weekends, I have had to be relay'd home with my 91, Townace TD Super Extra, due to overheating problems. The rescue drivers have both said they suspect the thermostat. On both occasions, I have travelled approximately 60-70 miles down the motorway before the problem has shown up.

The Temp gauge shows no sign of the temperature increasing, and sits just below the middle marker on the gauge.

The first indication of the problem is the heater going cold, and when I have stopped, there is no water in the rad or expansion tank.

I have scoured the Archives and see that this is a common problem with the Townie. Perhaps Rad cap, thermostat, fan or cylinder head gasket.

I have ordered both a new cap and thermostat from the local Toyota Dealer, but have seen in previous archives that the use of 'CarGo Seal up' has been succesful to seal a leaky head gasket. Can anyone tell me where I can get this product from.

Many thanks

- (#11755) Steve Bowen, 15 Nov 03 19:16

My own liteace faced the same problem. I had it top overhauled by a mechanic. Problem solved.

- (#11756) Donatus, 16 Nov 03 1:49

Changing the radiator cap and thermostat is a good start, but only use the Toyota replacements, and make sure you get a new O-Ring for the thermostat as well. RADIATOR CAP. (Float type) 16401-64501 THERMOSTAT.(30mm x 10mm).90916-03046 THERMOSTAT O-Ring.16325-63010

If the overheating is only occurring on the motorway, at motorway speeds, there is a possibility that the viscous coupling may be failing. Have a read of the on line Ace hand book. The section on the cooling system has lots of information that will help you.

The temperature gauge always says normal, unless its too late, and the damage is already done. You need to fit one of Dave Mason’s temperature alarms. That enables the gauge to indicate the actual temperature, and sound an alarm when things warm up beyond normal.

Hope that helps
Dave Bright

- (#11757) dave Bright, 16 Nov 03 3:44

Thanks Donatus and Dave for your replies.

Hope to pick up the new cap and thermostat from the Toyota Dealer tomorrow.

Mechanic friend of mine has had a look at the motor this morning and says that there is a very slight blow from the cylinder head gasket at the front of the engine. Would this cause the problem.

Any info on the CarGo seal up would be appreciated.

Many thanks
Steve

- (#11758) Steve Bowen, 16 Nov 03 7:07

Yes, I'm afraid it could well be the cause.

- (#11759) dave Bright, 16 Nov 03 7:48

hello dave:

I was reading your advice on steve's overheating problem, i am interested on that temp alarm system. how can i get it and for how much? I am in manila Philippines. please reply.

- (#11760) alexis, 16 Nov 03 20:45

alexis
go to ace answers and all will be revealed. the alarm costs around £25 sterling and is well worth it and so easy to fit. cheque or credit card and dave mason, bless 'im, will do the rest so long as you send all the details of your vehicle so that he can send the correct unit
good luck
brian


- (#11761) brian squire, 17 Nov 03 0:57

No problem supplying the temp gauge mod. to a postal address in Philippines or anywhere else in the world, just order now to avoid delays in the run-up to Christmas. Usually despatched immediately by first class letter post. Reached New Zealand in 3 days. Same price to anywhere - £24. Ordering online with credit card deals with currency conversion. See Ace Answers, Ace Handbook, under Cooling.

- (#11933) Dave Mason (Sussex), 21 Nov 03 10:56

I replaced the head on my 91 Townace super extra 2wd last week, I too changed the rad cap & thermostat, I also cahnged the radiator & water pump as these were both leaking. My advice is that to be completly sure that the head gasket is at fault most garages have a special dye which they place into a little vial this changes colour from blue to yellow or purple depending on what type the garage is using. I went to a local garage & paid £4 for this & it took about 10 mins.

- (#11934) Arshad Mahmood, 22 Nov 03 12:16