GTV expansion tank overflow

[carlo rossi]

I havent topped up for over a year
look further
hows the oil / oil cap

[poohbah]

Oil and cap are both clean. No sign of water or coolant contamination in oil. Don't think I had topped up in over a year prior either.

[bonno]

Poohbah
Recommend and use on my Alfetta GTV4, Nulon Premium Long Life coolant 100% concentrate (Red).
bonno

[poohbah]

Thanks Bonno, for this and all the other tips.

[bonno]

My pleasure Poohbah and hopefully the new coolant fixes the overheating problem.

[Alfapride]

I got the air con fan wired in series with the radiator fan so they both operate at the same time this helped a lot just make sure the air flow is sucking into the engine and not out..

[Alfapride]

Maybe you have a leak from the heater box is the carpet damp?? You shouldn't be loosing water

[poohbah]

Carpet is dry. Only place I'm losing coolant is through the overflow pipe after i switch off following driving in traffic for a while.

[carlo rossi]

Poohbah when I switch the beast off my electric fan goes on for around 3-5 mins
to cool it down maybe you should wire the fan up the same ie off the ignition switch
so it has power all the time and uses the thermostat to switch it on
this might stop the build up
also how full is the tank 1/2 way? or full

[poohbah]

Cheers Carlo, that's a good idea.

Tank is now about 3/4 full (as per recommended markings), but its basically just water as I didn't have coolant on hand.

My plan this weekend is to drain cooling system, and replace with correct coolant, take her for a long run, and see if there is still a problem.

I'm trying to remember if my fan used to stay on after I switched off. I'm pretty sure it didn't.

[poohbah]

Well, I hope I'm not putting the mockers on, but I'm going to tentatively call a success. Drained and changed coolant. Went for a decent run, got it up to temp for about 30mins, fan came on as it ought at about 85-90C, and when I switched off, no coolant overflow or unusual noises from the expansion tank.

Thanks all for your assistance.

[GTVeloce]

Hi poohbah.

Hm, I doubt adding the coolant actually did the job. Water does a very good job at keeping a car cool but a terrible job of stopping rust and other stuff in your system. However, you may very well have had an air bubble or blockage in your system and flushing may have helped remedy that.

The front fan is not standard but since it is there I would either use it or discard it. As your A/C is not operational (and assuming you don't want it) you could wire it up to run in time with the engine fan. Perhaps also worth a check that it has been installed correctly with regards to direction of air flow (push or pull).

Given the terrible design of the wiring on those cars, I would suggest a new 5 pole relay mounted near the radiator. Power (30) from the terminal block on the DS inner fender; earth (85) from wherever is good nearby; the old fan wire becomes the feed to the relay (86) and the two outputs (87 and 87) go to the two fans. You get 12V at the fans (unlikely at the moment), preserve your ignition switch and wiring under the dash/fuse box), it is very easy to return to standard if you ever want to and you get two fans doing the job.

[poohbah]

cheers Julian, it may well have been an air bubble that caused the initial trouble, given it's never had any similar problems before, but I'm still glad to have put the correct mix in car now. Took it for another run today and all went perfectly.

I've posted pics of the relays in my engine bay before - there are a mess of extras that a prior owner has added, but they still haven't addressed the issue of wipers and stereo dropping out when the indicators are on etc, even after I had the alternator rebuilt.

Probably needs a complete wiring overhaul to be honest.

[bonno]

Hi Poohbah
Good that you sorted out your overheating problem with your Alfetta GTV, by just flushing the system and replacing coolant. Just a tip that I just come across, that might be helpful to other forum members with an overheating problem and involves checking the correct operation of thermostat. This method allows it to be checked without pulling apart thermostat housing and checking it in boiling water. It uses the squeeze method of the radiator hose once engine is hot refer Method # 3 (difficulty in removing thermostat housing in an earlier thread) . Refer to the following link for details : 
http://www.wikihow.com/Tell-if-Your-Car%27s-Thermostat-Is-Stuck-Closed

bonno

[poohbah]

cheers bonno, handy tip.