FRST water problem
 

Hi, right I've just done a complete drain down of the water system and oil. Changed the oil filter and oil and everything's ok there, as you'd expect! Cleaned out and freshened up the header tank and thermostat housing as I had a slight leak from it. Now everything's full and no leaks but the water rises in the header tank and she gets really hot, hotter than before! I changed the radiator fan switch also because the old one was s**t, should I of bought a lower temp one?? :wall: I saw someone mention a new cap can sometimes cure this, could it just be air in the system and is there any bleed points??

Thanks in advance,
Stuart

I use to , squeeze rad pipes and heater pipes with engine running and heaters on hot with cabin fan going,
until heater blows hot, header cap off , or loose
also check your engine fan is switching on too

I've got water in the heater matrix as that's blowing hot, fan switches on but not until the N in normal which is pretty hot! Is the water rising normal? Should I just fit a switch on the fan and run it on "spirited" drives!

n is for normal as you stated if it passes this area its a problem,
so long as your needle raises then the engine fan cuts in and the needle drops or a safe normal heat is indicated and maintained, there is no problem, ,
the water in header tank may bounce about a bit if you release the cap, if it overflows out the spout, its running too hot, otherwise its fine, just fill upto max when its cold, and do it up and keep aware of the needle position, it sounds fine,
, switch your fan on cold, go for a spin if it goes over the point of normal, sling your heater on hot and blowers on max , this always help lose a few centigrade, I think your fine

No worries bud, cheers for the advice. I might see about getting a low temp sensor because I'd like it to come on a bit earlier or just fit a switch.

When the fans do come on it drops it down to almost half but on a few occasions there's been some steam from the bottle. I'll just keep an eye. It'll be coming out soon anyway if I can raise the funds!

Go to ford and get a proper fan switch - Mine was doing this when i my orginal switch went and used a differant one

Went to ford and got proper one £22 and all sorted

worth a try as you cant get the motorsport development lower temp ones now.

Ok mate, thanks for the info. Yea, it does come on a lot later than my last one! I paid £15 for it from a eBay company. I'll give ford a ring then.

One thing I've noticed today is there is no pressure in the system now and the caps constantly venting. There should be some pressure in there shouldn't there? Do the caps fail?

a fiesta rst ??? has it got the rubber seal fitted ?

Yes mate, it's yellow motorcraft with a rubber seal inside. I will add that the car used to be a XR2i

Just been reading up about the caps failing and not holding pressure. Hopefully this could be it as all I've done is change water and oil

they are cheap enough to buy and can fail
main thing for now is your car doesn`t run too hot,
obtain the ford switch, get another yellow cap , hope it sorts it

Cheers

Has anyone used the motorsport developments low temp fan switch? Do you just cut the old connector off and fit new connectors to suit the switch?

As I said above You can't get them no more, did you go to ford and get the correct temp switch? This will come in earlier than the eBay crap