Recently noticed the heat from my blowers was tepid at best even after a long journey. Took it to a reliable garage who suggest we swap over the thermostat (£25 for a favour). Still no joy. I checked what I could, everything looks okay except the radiator isn't getting warm. Engine temp reaches the normal half way mark, pressure all the way to the radaitor but it isn't getting warm.

I'm thinking the radiator needs replacing as it may have a blockage.

Anyone got other suggestions. ?

Sound like you have a decent idea what your looking for anyway.

Check the pipes going into the radiator and out of the radiator,

are they the same temp?

Is one hot and one cold?

Check various coolant pipes and see which ones are hot and which are cold, check the heater matrix ones also.

A few problems could be...

Failure of the water pump.

Block on the matrix.

Block on the radiator.

Jammed thermostat.

Good luck and let us know.

with the weather as it is at the moment my car can sit idling for 40 - 50 mins and barely be readable on the temp gauge and once stopped even after a run and reaching normal running temps the car cools very quickly,

As for the heater the matrix may simply want flushing back through to try clear it

Edited 16 January, 201313 yr by Holmesie

I'm not very technical. But the coolant appears to be flowing and bubbles in the holding tank - does that mean the water pump working ?

The pipe into the radiator is warm and has tension in it so I'm guessing its reaching the radiator. I think the radiator is blocked and its barley flowing inside.

I had a leak on the radiator some months ago and they added to "stuff" to seal the leak. Not sure if this has caused the blockage.

The water pump could still be working but not very well and not pushing the water around enough.

Going off what you have said, I think it's safe to say the radiator is at fault, could be down to the "stop leak" stuff you have added.

the problem with radweld is its very good at sealing and can often seal were you dont want it to seal. personally i would never use it in my car. as it would be possible to block both the radiator and the heater matrix.