I give up, what the frck is going on!?

[Rob]

Okay as Jeff and others know, I have or what seemed to be have had a cooling problem with my E34.

So this morning I really need to use the car. As if I don't, I loose my job as I would have not be able to get there as my Dad usally takes me. So no choice but to bite the bulit and take the E34 out. Sure okay....here we go..

So I open up the radiator cap, and put more water and coolant in the car. And I leave for work.

The car take a while to warm up, normal. Then get's to half way temp. Still normal. So then I start to hit heavy traffic. Last time I was in heavy traffic in this car, she went into the red and I had to turn off. That was when the overheating first started. So anyway, I look down at the temp gauge and see it's a needel past half way. Ok, what gives? usally she would be next to the red now. So I carry on in this heavy traffic for like 5 minutes.

After this the needel is a little more past half way 3/4th of the way. I'm in the middle of traffic here, and no where to go. I cannot switch the engine off...so I sit...and sit in traffic. Needel stary where it is...

Then I get the the works car parking. Drive half way round as I want to park on the roof...no, some idiot has just blocked that way for the day. So I go past the fuel station and drive round I watch the needel still, it starts going back to half way point. What the ****? Normally at this speed (40 Km/s) she would be very hot. I know this as that's what happened last time when the cooling problem first started.

So there I am, stilling at the round-abount waiting to turn left, needel is now sitting half way again. Okay what the **** is going on here I think??

So then I turn left and make my way to the roof of the building. Park the car and now I'm in the parking bay, rol windows and roof up. And let the car idle, while needel in still half way. Now last time I idled this car when the heating problem first started, at a robot, she got very hot, needel next to red mark in like 20 seconds. So I keep this car idled for atleast a minute....needel still half way. I'm now running late for work, so I give up turn off the car and go into work.

Seems now this has really confused me, big time!

Anyone want to shed some light here for me. What has happened??

[Paul in NZ]

how much water/coolant did you add?.

[Rob]

Just so it was past the COOL/KLAT mark on the tank. As it was a little low.

[Morgenster]

Cooling fan clutch?

[Rob]

What do you mean, bro?

[ILoveMPower]

Cooling fan clutch?

The fan clutch might be going, therefore it's not properly engaging/disengaging the fan to cool your engine.

You can test this by using something to try and stop the rotation of the fan when it's spinning... if it stops quite easily, it's pretty obvious you should change the fan clutch.

Hope this is the problem, and hope this helps

-jeremy

[Rob]

Hmm. Okay. I have susspected it was the fan clutch. That's making much more sense now.
Going to drive the car home from work this afternoon and will test it when I arrive home and report back to you guys tomorrow.

Thanks guys

[Mendozart]

It sounds like a bleeding problem. It may have bled itself now that it's working right.

[Rob]

Hi,

Well I'm going to drive her home in three hours time. I think it may be the clutch that is going. As I had a big problem with power on the car. It had no power. And had the overheating problem. few weeks later I replaced the fuel pump and power was back. But the overheating problem seemed to have sorted it self out. So one week of driving, and she started the whole overheat badly. So since my aux fan switch was dead I jumpered the conecter and kept the fan working when ever engine was on to see if that was the problem. As I said I had to use the car this morning, and cooling has seemed to correct it self again.

Might be clutch. I hope not as I have no idea where the hell I am going to find a new one here!

[azale]

It sounds like you are learning a lot about how a car's cooling system works. Good for you. I just hope we are moving in the right direction here (and I'm a little concerned about the rest of the car.)

The cooling system in a car is similar to the cooling system in your body. An engine (or your body) is going to generate a little heat, and the radiator (or your sweat) dissipates that heat into the air.

The main fan (between the engine and the radiator) 'turns on' (clutch engages) when the engine is hot but it spins with the engine all the time, just not as fast as the engine until the clutch engages. The auxillary fan is in the front of the radiator and turns on when the A/C is on (the A/C produces even more heat).

I jumpered the conecter and kept the fan working when ever engine was on to see if that was the problem. As I said I had to use the car this morning, and cooling has seemed to correct it self again.

Do you still have it jumpered? Is it running all the time?

Apparently a lot of people think the fan clutch os your problem, probably because they have had to change them before. Read the replies again for how to test that fan clutch with a rolled up newspaper.

But there are a whole load of problems that you could have, you just have to start from the top and narrow it down.

1. If you have no fluid you are screwed because the water transfers the heat . . . but you said you checked the fluid level.
2. The water has to *move* otherwise hot water will stay in the engine . . . you can test this by holding the big hose that goes into the top of your radiator when the car is hot. You should be able to feel water flowing. Or you might be able the open the cap on your radiator to watch the water move in there. If water isn't moving, you could have a bunch of problems: pump broken (you would probably hear pump noise or see a leak at the front of the pump (between the fan and your engine), clogged radiator (you would test this by removing the bottom hose on your radiator and letting water flow through it; this would also tell you how dirty your radiator is), broken thermostat (in cold climates you don't want the water to flow all the time so a thermostat is installed to keep the engine a little warm. It is a valve which opens when the engine is warm; I think most are designed to open fully when they fail but sometimes they get stuck closed. This is usually on the top of the engine in the hose where the top hose touches the engine.)

Most importantly *do what these guys tell you to do.* They know what they are talking about but you have to be trying this stuff on your car . . . and it looks liek you keep asking questions and aren't going back to your car to implement the solutions.

You have been given a bunch of suggestions but now you have to test them all out. I suggest reading back through the last 3 threads you started about this and make sure you followed everyone's advice. If you don't know how to do it, ask questions about specific tests . . . and take some pictures

If water is moving, the radiator is clean inside and out, and the fans are working, you have a more serious problem. Have you been taking car of your e34?