[Closed] Van problem diagnosis

What is the water level in the expansion bottle? Was the cooling fan blowing?

Could be all sorts. Stuck thermostat maybe but headgasket can go without the oil and water mixing. Had that in a Fiat Punto once.

If all fluids were present and correct I'd be suspecting thermostat or water pump.

Could just be a small leak in a coolant hose, enough to lose pressure and allow water to boil, overheat and go into limp mode. Would look for scale deposits around hose connections but might not have actually dumped much water, just lost pressure.
Could also be head gasket.

Fan working fine, water level was low but a lot of steam when cap taken off

Steam is normal when you take the cap off a hot engine, pressure reduces on what could be over 100 degree water so it boils immediately.

Top up the water and keep an eye on it for a few journeys. If there are no external leaks but the level drops it could be leaking into the cylinders and getting burned off.

After that I'd be getting a garage to check the thermostat and pump and giving it a bloody good flush and fresh coolant at the same time. Old engine could be silted up in the block or radiator especially if the water hasn't been changed for a while.

Water was fairly new, one of the metal pipes leaked about six months or so ago. Low loader man thinks its head gasket, oil was dark but he said it felt a bit contaminated.
Is this going to be an expensive one?? Van is old and tatty but quite useful for biking duties and only got 88k on the clock.

Is this going to be an expensive one??

Might not be too expensive as they go on that simple engine, probably easy to get to but it's always a few hundred for a head off job in my, (admittedly limited) experience.

Edit - I'd not take low loader man's word either, I work with oil samples and it never "feels" contaminated with water. Get a proper diagnosis and indication of price from a garage.

Sniff test would be my first port of call.

Lots of guessing here that don't really corolate with the symptoms.

Clogged radiator? Take rad out flush it through n jet wash it.

Change thermostat.

Test it.

At over 20mph the airflow cools n the rad fans are useless.

I'd not be hoping on the head gasket waggon just yet

Another thought would be when did it last have a water pump.

If your water pump fails this happens.

I've never had this occur from a stuck thermostat. Every time.thermostats stuck the cars ended up overcooled and temp is low.

But that's likely down to design of my engines ...combo could be a different design

I’ve never had this occur from a stuck thermostat

I have, on a 1.8 Duratec. About £60 for a replacement and a complete arse to get at.

You can get a cheap tester to check for exhaust contamination in the coolant. Change the oil to check for water.

Top it back up and try again. Only reason I'd be cautious is if the water pump is known to seize, they are sometimes (always?) driven by the nontoothed backside of the cambelt so it would skid over the pulley and risk damaging your cambelt if driven too far.

Does it over heat in Normal use or just when it was working hard?

Some water pumps have plastic impellers that fail but I'd expect it to run hot all the time.

I'd still be inclined to flush it out. Bang some dish washer tablets into the header tank.

If the rads cacked in shite externally or missing a load of fins this soukd give it normal cooling on short low effort runs but have no capacity to cool in warmer higher demand scenarios.

Is you heater in the cab working effectively?

Nice to see the pin the tail on the donkey diagnosis on here is still going well.

A head gasket failure itself does not normally cause overheating. It causes water loss, which then causes overheating.

If the water level is still at least visible, then likely to either be thermostat, water pump or radiator problem. Clogged/silted water ways on a modern vehicle are very unlikely, as rust inhibitors in modern anti-freeze are very good at what they do, unless there has been some major problem previously.

People try n help and yes its abit diagnosis roulette.

I see clogged waterways as a symptom of people wanging k seal in to fix weeping radiators.

Hence asking if the matrix is running hot.

Presume it's the 1.7 dti twincam

Trying to remember if that's a chain motor or not

I have, a 1.8 Duratec. About £60 for a replacement and a complete arse to get at.

Just done my mx5 with same engine.

If there is no water or oil missing I would guess a blockage or failed water pump. Has it got the correct antifreeze/coolant it also stops corrosion I have heard of water pumps fins going missing

Cheers all, the van has been collected and will make it’s way to London sometime this week, no point putting the recovery people under the cosh when I’ve no need for it.
The heater was cold, no warmth in the pipes to the matrix.
The cooling system has been flushed relatively recently, when it had a cracked metal pipe, apparent lot of old crap got flushed out.
Normally it runs fine and doesn’t ever seem to get overly hot, did an hour and a bit back from peaslake a few weeks back and it was fine, yesterday was definitely a new occurrence. Never had any rad seal or the like in the seven or so years I’ve had it.
It was topped up and run again and overheated again.
It will go into a decent garage here hen it’s comes back and I’ll update on progress - either that or ask for buying tips on a berlingo!!!

1.7 Combo of that era is the Isuzu engine. Has a cam belt, but it only drives cam, fuel pump, and oil pump. Water pump is driven from the aux belt.

Heater pipes not warming up sounds like a coolant flow issue, so could just be needing a water pump.

Problem with something that age, is if it's worth paying someone to diagnose and fix. If the van is still structurally sound, then it'll be worth sticking a water pump on and seeing how it goes. If it has resulted in a head gasket issue, then I'd really be considering if it's worth repairing.

Yeh the cost will be a factor. The van is in reasonable condition, bit of rust one one door and the drivers window doesn’t work but other than that it’s been pretty good. It’s only used for carting bikes about so had an easy life. The problem with costs is how much a decent replacement will cost, had a quick look and van prices are still firm. Wait and see time.

Thread resurrection (which is probably more than the van is going to do !!).

It’s gone in to the garage this morning, they are not optimistic on it’s future (they did a coolant leak on it about a year ago so have been over it before) 🙁

Expect a new thread on £4K vivaro or Hiace soon.

And the van be dead! Garage say the head is borked and advise that it’s not economic to repair.
A sad day:(

That's a shame. Stick it on eBay with a very honest description and collection from the garage, (if they are happy with that of course) you might find someone will give you fair money for it and just sling a secondhand engine in it.

Went and picked up this afternoon and the guy at the garage suggested looking for a second hand engine and he’d fit if for £500 but nothing on eBay so it’s going to be the scrapper. eBay - last vehicle I sold on that the buyer dicked me around and as the tax is up at the end of the month and it’s parked on the road a quick disposal is needed.
Been looking on autotrader and it’s £2k for a berlingo or twice and a bit that for a hiace. Heart says hiace but that would be a bit ott just for lugging bikes around and only about two thousand miles in the last two years.

Berlingo don't rust nearly as fast as hiace.

You also See many more old berlingos on the road than hiace ergo future parts will easier to source if you find you need a new engine .