Cooling System - 2002 Expert HDI

[doghandler]

Hi to all, I wonder if someone can give a bit of an insight in to my 2002 Expert's quirks on the cooling system. It's ex Police, and has 135,000 on the clock, of which the first 120,000 were Police miles, so subject to a "proper" service schedule.

When driving, the temperature gauge reads about 70-75 degrees. When idle, or in traffic, it reads about 85-93 degrees (I run it idle most of the night to run electrical devices from the engine).

The engine runs like a dream, it's responsive, and there's no nasty smoke of any colour coming out of the exhaust.

The problem I am having involves sitting in traffic. When the engine idles, the coolant level light comes on. When I start moving again, the light stops. At traffic after a long run, there's steam from under the bonnet occasionally, but when opening the bonnet I can't work out where it's coming from.

There seems to be coolant around the reservior bottle - not a massive amount, but almost like its' steamed up and condensed.

I've taken it in to the garage today, and they've replaced a sticky thermostat, but the issue is still apparent. The garage pressure tested the system, and it passed, they've checked that both viscious fans are kicking in, which they are.. Could this be as simple as a faulty sensor, or do I need to start worrying about the engine?

[mcdig]

Seal gone on the reservoir cap? Quite often overlooked especially if the garage pressure tests from the bottle.
The stop light is a common problem with a sensor on the same engine in Picasso's so worth a look.

[doghandler]

Will replace it tomorrow mcdig, cheers

If the head gasket was on the way out, would it be as subtle as this on the symptoms, and would it have passed a pressure test?

[doghandler]

Just driven 50 miles back home tonight, and the coolant level light was on.. Drove it straight to the mechanic, who looked under the hood, and bollocked me because the water bottle was empty.. He opened it, and lo and behold, the level returned to normal.. so he's going to pressure test it again and re-diagnose it.

In typical main dealer fashion, the Peugeot dealer 300 yards from my house are gong to take three days to get a water bottle cap for me

[gas-man]

Originally Posted by doghandler

Will replace it tomorrow mcdig, cheers

If the head gasket was on the way out, would it be as subtle as this on the symptoms, and would it have passed a pressure test?

sorry to be the bearer of bad news but yes symptoms could be this subtle,just had the head replaced on mine,are the rad pipes hard when the engines cold?is it under pressure when cold?

[doghandler]

Originally Posted by gas-man

sorry to be the bearer of bad news but yes symptoms could be this subtle,just had the head replaced on mine,are the rad pipes hard when the engines cold?is it under pressure when cold?

It's not bad news mate, it's a minor inconvenience that's going to cost me a couple of days wages to rectify - the only b*stard about it is that its a month after buying the van.. but I intend to run it in to the ground, so it would have needed the cooling system being serviced at some point.. just not after I've spent a load of cash on the canine systems and signage - Thanks for not sugaring the pill

Thanks for your help guys.

The guy in the Peugeot dealership advised that they use a dozen different gasket sizes on this van, is this true? He also said that it's very rare that a 2.0 HDI needs skimming on a head gasket change, is this true also?

My spanner man has the vehicle on Thursday, although he's told me to try some steel seal before then to see if it really needs doing - He's charging me 60 pints of Stella for the labour, and cost price for the parts

I won't be using them for the job after their 12 hour quotation, and assuming I didn't notice he was doubling up charges for things that they were already doing (wanted to charge full price for a timing belt change and water pump whilst doing the job at teh same time)