Hi.
After having so many probs with cooling system,
thinking of scrapping cruiser.
(1) Head Gasket blew,replaced that rear heater didn't work.
(2) replaced rear heater,+Thermostat+installed electric fan+ new rad cap,still overheating,and rear heater still not working.Drained and refilled system slowly several times but no luck.
I'm absolutely fed up with it.
I have got a service repair manual for it and covered everything in that,and still no luck.
We have spent hundreds on trying to get it done,
two months ago it was running beautifully,then head gasket blew, had head skimmed,ran it in for first 500 miles no probs,apart from rear heater not working,and everything was working before gasket blew!.Somebody please tell me what the hell to do,as my wife is registered disabled and relies on this as her in-dependence,and also for carrying her motorised scooter around.We are on a tight budget and in no way can we afford to have head skimmed and refitted again.
We honestly thought that we had a good vehicle,
but now I beg to differ.
Apperently the townaces suffer the same probs.
I have tried everything that everybody on her has suggested and no luck.
any suggestions that may work?
At the moment I feel like putting a match to it!
Cheers
Andy Richards(Bridport)
- (#10222) Andy Richards(Bridport), 18 Apr 04 17:27
you obviously have an air locking problem ! i tend to think that your initial and current problem is hose related.the best way of checking is with the engine running lift the seat and watch hoses individually when engine is idleing and when you give it plenty opf revs. some of these water hoses are internally braided and if there consistancy is weakened you will see them suck in as you rev. this was the problem i had with mine when i got it and why it blew head gasket twice before we found this cause.of course might be something totally different but try this first. good luck and dont loose hope just yet. Iain
- (#10222) Iain, 18 Apr 04 19:01
i have owned my crusier since january and have had problems like you ,i no its a long shot but have you flushed the system with rad flush,my hubby did this three times because of overheating but leave it for 72 hours in the system to do its job ,also i removed my thermostat for a week ,we found that crap from the system was blocking the thermost and sending the system crazy.
- (#10222) ruth howse, 19 Apr 04 01:10
is your water pump working ?
- (#10222) ruth howse, 19 Apr 04 01:13
Hi Andy,
I can understand your despair with this. Its hard enough when the gasket goes, but to still have overheating woes must be soul destroying.
Can you tell me how its overheating? ok on short local driving but not on hills or duel carriage ways etc.
My first thought is the electric fan, is it up to the job? If you still have the original bits it might be worth refitting them just to confirm this.
Does the radiator cap produce pressure? check the seating for the cap and the rubber seal in the cap. Any dents on the rim of the filler neck could weaken the pressurised seal. Any sharp bits could tear the seal and cause a loss of pressure. Any loss of pressure will result in boiling coolant and that will look almost identical to a blown head gasket.
Does the draw back mechanism work properly, checkout the ace online hand book. I gave Dave a load of info relating to this and he published it here http://mpvi.net/ih/indexhan.htm
Any small leak in the cooling system will reduce the pressure. There is a thread on the BOK relating to this and it would appear that a pressure test is not always conclusive. It has to be done with a very hot engine to prove it one way or another.
I have heard of ultra violet dyes that can show up any leaks much better than with the naked eye, so you could perhaps investigate it.
There are also many pipes and junctions under the drivers seat that can result in leaks, so they would be worth a look as well.
It is possible, and it has happened to some people, for the leak to be very small and not produce the tale tale pool of coolant under the engine. As the coolant exits the leak it passes into zero pressure and will instantly turn to steam. This will get carried away from the engine area so that everything appears normal.
- (#10222) dave Bright (Bournemouth), 19 Apr 04 01:35
Hi Dave.
We were just about getting fed up with it.
Went and picked up new rad cap today,replaced all rad hoses,replaced all the stupid clips they use on them for proper Jubilee clips!.Refilled system slowly,both heaters set to hot.The electric fan was being used in conjuction with the viscous fan. I thought it might be better to leave the viscous one in and add the electric fan. The fan is from a peugeot 205!.
My mate uses the same in his cruiser along with the viscous fan,and has no probs!
Will keep you up to date of what happens,only said that we was getting rid of it because it really
P****S you off when you have something like that happens. my local Toyota dealer was very helpful,he had a young mechanic who used to own a cruiser and had same problem his head gasket went and his cooling system went mental. like he said all you can do is if you keep getting airlocks just keep draining and flushing the system and re-filling slowly until you don't get one. he also said that Spacecruisers suffer the exact same cooling and overheating probs as the Townies.
Will keep you posted,and many thanx to all you out there who have encouraged us to keep the cruiser.
Cheers
Andy Richards
- (#10222) Andy Richards(Bridport), 19 Apr 04 16:53
Hi Andy.
I'm glad we have managed to persuade you to keep the cruiser, so long as it doesn't bite you in the bum that is.
If you have an electric fan in-between the radiator and viscous driven fan, it could alter the airflow enough to cause overheating in some cases. For example if the radiator fins are partially blocked it will restrict the air flowing through the radiator, which will cause an increase in the temperature. Also if the radiator is clogging up inside this will restrict the coolant flow, which will also cause an increase in the temperature. If there is an extra fan in the way this will add to the problem.
If I were in your position I would whip the electric radiator out temporarily and see what happens to the temperature.
- (#10222) dave Bright (Bournemouth), 20 Apr 04 01:17
Hi Andy. I'm a female lorry driver with more than a few dodgy joints! I know how difficult it can be to get about sometimes. And I'm prob not as bad as your wife. I also, now and again, drive disability mini-buses to help my mate out. If your wife needs a buggy then, and I hate to say this chuck cos I love my van, don't trust the cruiser. Get rid and get something you both can rely on. Cos if your wife is disabled chuck, you don't need the hassle of one of these. x
- (#10222) old bird, 20 Apr 04 01:19
I've see a lot on the forum about cooling system problems and wonder if the problems everone gets is the same as I had with a Hiace some years ago.
My old Hiace with a 12R 1600cc petrol engine would get over hot very easy, and as soon as I started to cruise on open road it would just get hotter, until boiled.
At the time the van was about 10 years old and the main radiator was the older type with a cap straight on the top. Looking inside the system there had been a massive build up iron corrosion from the engine block. It was a silk like mixture, and no amount of flushing the system would shift it. I even tried to reverse flush it all out with a pressure washer but no good. This in effect was seriously restricting the water flow though the rad and therefore it could only keep up with the engines damages under gentle load.
As the rad was otherwise in good nick, I had it opened up and professional cleaned out and put back together. Then refitted using plenty of good anti-freeze/corrosion stuff and the problem was gone forever.
This sludge may also explain why your heater has packed up and why it's difficult to refill the system without getting airlocks.
Are you able to see into the rad ? Have you had horrible rusty coloured water in the passed ?
It's probably easier to replace the rad than have it open up these days. My old Hiace had the old metal type headers soldered in.
Jason
- (#10222) Jason Bamford, 20 Apr 04 09:00
Hi Dave.
The elecric fan is not mounted between the radiator and viscous fan, it is mounted on the front of the radiator,so it's blowing towards the radiator.
My mate has done it on his cruiser,and it works fine.
It's not right on the front it's mounted about 3 or 4 inches away from radiator tilting slightly up.And he hasn't had a problem with it at all.
Cheers
Andy Richards(Bridport)
- (#10222) Andy Richards(Bridport), 20 Apr 04 14:12
Hmm, I’m not sure about that. Any debris finding its way into the airflow of the fan could be catapulted into the radiator and punch a hole right through it. That’s why fans are usually on the other side of the radiator. Having said that of course, the air conditioning fans blow air down through the evaporators and horizontal radiator.
I would still remove it temporarily just to be sure it’s not the cause.
- (#10222) dave Bright (Bournemouth), 20 Apr 04 14:39
Hi Dave.
What would be the best way to put an electric fan in the cruiser?.
Because I've heard of these viscous fans failing.
Also good news about van we put new hoses on and new rad cap and she is fine.
Would still like to install electric fan (more reliable). Can anybody explain best way.
Cheers
Andy Richards(Bridport)
- (#10222) Andy Richards(Bridport), 21 Apr 04 16:55
Andy
Click on Ace Answers and then onto Rob Drinkwater's site and scroll down to cooling.
Not done it myself but have a Ford Granada double fan unit ready for if/when I do.
- (#10222) Clive (Bristol), 22 Apr 04 00:31
Just to add a cautionary note to the electric fan conversion, Dave Mason was bang on recently when he said that whatever you are adding, it has to work in the same way as the bit that you are removing, otherwise expensive things could and do happen. Ok some people have done the conversion and it works very well, but care is needed not to over cool the radiator. If this happens, the coolant exiting the radiator will over cool the bottom of the engine and cause the thermostat to shut way too early. This will then result in a higher head temperature and possibly overheating!
Your best bet if you are going down this route is to do what Clive says. The same as Rob Drinkwater.
- (#10222) dave Bright (Bournemouth), 22 Apr 04 02:06
you'd be hard pressed to "overcool" the rad- that's what the thermostat is for! The only reason for head temps to greatly exceed lower block temps would be a duff water pump or blocked bypass circuit, IMO.
- (#10222) David Miller, 22 Apr 04 02:28
Hi Dave,
I had a chap on the phone recently looking for some NPG+ because his van overheats, but only when he tows a caravan. He has access to some hi tech laser thermometers and was surprised to find that having added a few extra fans to increase the cooling capacity, the head temperature actually increased. The only thing that I can think of, is that the extra cooling has reduced the temperature of the coolant feeding into the engine to a point where it is overcooling the bottom end of it and is causing the thermostat to cool off and close to early. As the volume of coolant that has passed the thermostat is less that it should be, not all the hot coolant has been pushed out of the top. This I guessed would cause the increase in head temperature.
- (#10222) dave Bright (Bournemouth), 22 Apr 04 03:23
Which would then point to a restriction in the bypass circuit, no?
- (#10222) David Miller, 22 Apr 04 06:44
To be completly honest Dave I'm not sure if he has a restriction or not. He tells me that his Ace doesn't overheat any other time, only when he is towing his caravan. He also has one of Dave Masons alarms so he has an idea of when things are getting a bit warm. I guess it is possible though and might only be showing up when there is a greater load on the engine, whilst the van is on tow so I will mention it to him if he phones me again.
- (#10222) dave Bright (Bournemouth), 22 Apr 04 07:09
Hi Dave,Clive,and everybody else.
Many thanks to everybody who has helped,we now have found the problem/s.We ended up changing Thermostat,Rad hoses and flushed rear heater matrix.
Rear heater is now working (Airlock!)
Wife drove it today from Bridport to weymouth and back again,no problems with overheating!.
So now our Ace is up and on the road again.
Once again thanks Guys and gals
Cheers
Andy Richards(Bridport)
- (#10222) Andy Richards(Bridport), 23 Apr 04 18:38
Andy,
result!
And you were going to scrap it!
Are you going to play with the leccy fan, or leave alone?
See you at an Ace Jam
- (#10222) Clive (Bristol), 24 Apr 04 01:02
Hi Clive.
Yep,you're right we were going to scrap it.
glad we are not now.
You know I said about a burning smell?,it went,when we changed the thermostat.
Might have a go still with the leccy fan.
As you know in what ever way we can keep them from overheating we must try anything!.
I definite will see you at the Bridport AceJam!.
Along with Dave and all the others.
Thanks once again,a good result!.
like you say if people come on here and say that what has been suggested works,then you know it hasn't been a waste of time.
Cheers
Andy Richards(Bridport)
- (#10222) Andy Richards(Bridport), 24 Apr 04 13:40
Having had my spacecruiser for a couple of years, we have had major problems with over heating, as have several people we know who have also owned one.
We tried flushing the rad etc, new cap and thermostat all to no avail. We had the same common problem as lots of others where the water was bubbling out of the expansion tank. Turned out it was a broken wire on the sensor inside the expansion tank. Once it was resoldered our problems ended.Didn't cost a penny either!
- (#10222) Tan, 10 May 04 16:27