i have had a strange overheating problem with my puma for about 6 months now, one day the gauge just went straight up to the red after warming up and driving down the road. i had the car checked and it isnt the head gasket, it isnt the water pump because this has also been changed. it's been flushed through about 6 times aswell to check for any air.

now heres the strange bit, when driving along the gauge will start to rise up to the red, but if you hold it at 4000 revs or higher the gauge comes back down. as this is only a daily hack that owes me very little i have absolutely raped the car to as if it was stolen (possibly worse than a stolen car would be treated) and it's still going strong, no water in the oil and no oil in the wter etc.

so has anyone had a similar problem atall with a puma 1.7?

 

I'd guess the thermostat or at an outside chance, the heater control valve as I've heard this doing weird things. Or an air lock.

 

agree with dal.

It probably comes down again at high revs because your water pressure and flow rate will be much higher than at lower revs so may be just enough to regulate the temp.

 

have you checked the temp gauge sender? its in the bottom of the thermostat housing. the part that the plug pushes onto had snapped on mine, so the gauge was all over the place.
another common problem is the heater control valve, these cause all sorts of strange cooling problems.
hope this helps.

 

the thing is, i only drive it 9 miles to work and back and nowhere else, hence i drive it so hard, but it just keep's going and going which leads me to beleive it cant be something like head gasket etc or anything serious. but it is serious enough to make me wonder why it does it.

 

its the heater control valve, its a common problem, piece of cake to change if you can get your hands to it

 

no i havent checked. i will do tomorrow and see what happens.

 

+1

 

cheers for the reply's, hopefully i can stop driving it everywhere at 4k revs now and save some petrol.

 

heater control valve mine did it to

 

You need to determine if it IS getting that hot, not just rely on a gauge to tell you.
It doesn't sound as though it is actually getting that hot from your description, so I'd be checking other things first.
tabetha