Quote: Originally posted by Opensauce on 12/2/2016
Seems to work on mine. Towing in mountains, Pyrenees, temp gauge climbs, put heater on full, needle drops rapidly. Turning on heater opens up more of cooling system & allows heat to dissipate so cannot fail to drop water temp, I would have thought?
Just a coincidence - the engine has also seen the temp climbing so the fan is switched on and that is what is doing your cooling, causing the temp drop.
I'm in the process of building a kit car and I'm just starting on my coling system, hence why I'm boring you all with what I've learnt so far .
A fellow builder reported that he had over-heating problems and he tracked it down to being because he had fitted heater pipes that were too large. They were taking too much coolant out of the main system, his heater matrix wasn't cooling it down enough and he was returning still-hot coolant back to the main system, bypasing the main radiator.
He replaced the heater pipes with smaller diameter stuff and his over-heating problem was fixed.
------------- 'In later life, you will be more disappointed with the things you didn't do than with the things you did.' - Mark Twain
I've always thought the same, it actually says in my manual to turn on the heating fans if the temp of the engine is getting high! I thought it drew in cold air to heat up by way of a hot engine, and in doing so, cooled the engine somewhat.
Heater fan, switch on dashboard & yes correct turn on heater fan with heater to drop water temp. This is not the engine fan as referred to by nelmo which is under bonnet & comes on automatically.
So a combination of both will bring down water temp, but turning on heater & heater fan as suggested will certainly bring down water temp as your car handbook confirms.
So even if you car has no temp gauge, good driving practice for very long uphill towing on mountain roads which you may even not encounter in UK is just to put on heater & heater fan anyway. It won't do any harm.
With the DS auto gear box in the Roomster I would have thought you would have been more worried about you gearbox oil temp seeing you plan to go mountain climbing.
Quote: Originally posted by naturlist123 on 15/2/2016
With the DS auto gear box in the Roomster I would have thought you would have been more worried about you gearbox oil temp seeing you plan to go mountain climbing.
Not guilty! I only go camping in the UK. Apparently, the Roomster and my caravan are a 100% match according to what tow car. I think two pages ago someone said it would be ok *except at high altitudes*! LOL... I don't intend towing a caravan up a mountain!! As I'm usually heading towards a beach somewhere it's more likely to be sea level altitudes with me. But there are some long, slow hills in the UK, and it's those that I wonder about.
Quote: Originally posted by Opensauce on 16/2/2016
Long hills in the UK are not long enough to worry about. You are not driving up the Brenner Pass so you have nothing to worry about, just drive it.
Thanks for the reassurance Opensauce. I am probably worrying about nothing!! The temp used to get quite high in my last car, especially when towing on a long slow uphill (a few on the way to N. Wales!) and in stop/start town traffic. I never broke down or anything, but I did have a temp gauge to keep an eye on. If it started getting a bit high, then the heaters would go on for a short while, and the temp would go down again. It wasn't nice to have the heater on in sunny weather, so I just used to switch it on when I could see the temp rising.
How stupid are the manufacturers for not fitting one! All done to save costs, I reckon.
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Topic: no temp gauge...
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