[monkey catcher]

I was driving along enjoying the last of the nice weather with the top off last night and my temp guage started creeping up. I pulled over to check the usual things - coolant, oil, etc. and nothing looked out of the ordinary.

When I opened the coolant resevoir, it hissed like pressure had built up in there. Is that normal?

Any suggestions? Its my first Rover, so I am still a totally newbie when it comes to diagnosing these things.

I had the heat on, but that couldn't affect it could it?

Cheers.

 

[Funrover]

How bad did it creep up....a dew degrees is not a big deal.. First i would check fluid level while cold, if it continues themostat would be next...

 

[monkey catcher]

Creeping

It got to about 3/4 of the way to the red. It usually sits at about 1/3.

 

[Funrover]

When was the ladt time you had the cooling system flushed? if you haven't I'd do that...

 

[monkey catcher]

I will. Any other suggestions?

Oh, and how can you tell if a thermostat goes bad?

 

[Rovin4life]

it overheats.

but first check it when its cold. You could have some leaks.

 

[monkey catcher]

Okay, did some research and it looks like a bad thermostat. I am going to change out the water pump while I am at it because it might as well have a new water pump, alternator and thermostat in the same month. Flush the system at the same time.

Quick test for the thermostat is to drop it in a pot of water and heat it up. The therm. should do its trick at the right temp. Seems like an awful PIA for a $16 part.

Brakes'll probably go next. I hope I get at least a couple of weeks of driving it before that happens because I'm miserable when its forced to sit there.

 

[monkey catcher]

The answer

The answer to it all was a bad fan clutch. I am changing out the thermostat as a precaution. And as if that wasn't a big enough kick in the groin, there is a nail in my left rear tire (that's tyre for the Continental sorts).

When digging around, I found out that the previous owner did a great job installing the tail pipe, but left a nice hole in the central muffler, right on top where I couldn't see it without reaching up in there.