Hello, this is my first proper post. I have been having the overheating issue since January.

One morning as I got up to speed, the maxi dot showed the overheating warning and a long beeep came from the dash. I pulled over, let the engine cool, took it home and booked into a local garage. 

 

They diagnosed "auxiliary water pump fault" through a code reader, they changed the part and £140 later I had my car back working perfectly. 

 

Fast forward 6 months to the jubilee weekend. I was driving with my kids and as we got to 70 it happened again. I pulled over, let the engine cool, spent the weekend with no car, took it back on the Tuesday.  The garage could find no fault codes, got it on a rolling road, took it for a town drive on the route it overheated and they couldn't reproduce the issue. 

 

Coolant fine, plenty of oil... The cars checked regularly and dealer serviced every year. 

 

Yesterday, a week later it happened again. I was about 15 miles from home, kids in the car again.... Same thing, waited for the needle to drop, went on home, parked on the drive, called the garage again, went down and again no codes they said its not the auxiliary pump and to book it in. 

 

This time I researched and found a couple of interesting links. 

 

The first is another thread on here talking about the common water pump issue where the engine gets to temp and the pump doesn't kick in.

 

 

The other is a YouTube video of a guy walking through the fault in tremendous detail. 

 

 

Spoke to the local garage and they said if the pump comes out then the belt needs changing and they would charge upwards of £650.

 

I booked in the car to a main dealer, they quoted under £500 so cheaper than local. (probably going to end up expensive but hopefully they know what they are doing)... Can't get an appointment for 10 days. 

 

I thought I could nip to the shops later on today. It was 31c outside and the car had been in full sun all morning. I drove the car for seconds and it was at 90c on the dial after idling to turn right, I had to find somewhere to turn round, by the time I got onto my drive, it was almost at the red marker. I waited a minute and tested idle, the dial went back past 90c after idling for 30 seconds. When I got out of the car I noticed a rattling/clicking noise from one of the fans, and I have never heard the fans as loud as they were, the engine seemed warm but not 130c hot. 

 

My uncle thinks the head gasket, thermostat, or coolant leak, but I would have expected fault codes for such issues. So frustrating. Do garages actually troubleshoot anymore or just read codes and change parts?? 

 

I'm at a loss, still owe £2k on repayments and don't have a car to cart the family around. Such a nightmare. I'm terrible at searching forums and can't seem to narrow down what else it could be. 

I'm now not even confident enough to drive it to the dealers so arranging tow. 

Just wanted to tell my story. When I've had my appointment I will do my best to remember to come back here and post an update.

 

 

 

Hi welcome to the forum, my money's on a sticking thermostat, I understand that these have a sliding sleeve to allow quick warm-up - not an uncommon fault for these to stick closed. 

Your understanding is incorrect.

 

The waterpump has a sliding sleeve.

Yep this is what the linked video explains. 

 

What it doesn't explain is why the car overheated so rapidly later on in the day. It had been several hours since taking to the local garage. 

 

My understanding of the symptoms was that the car would behave normally and then once up to temperature the cooling system doesn't kick in leading to an overheat. Not really akin to driving for less than a minute then overheating that quick. I pray its the water pump or something less serious... Maybe the thermostat is dodgy and making the car think its overheating when actually it's not, leading to the whirring fans and dash warning when really everything's fine... 

 

Hate not having a car I feel trapped! 

Its impossible for an engine starting from either cold or ambient temperature to overheat in less than a minute even if the thermostat were stuck closed, your attention should be aimed towards the coolant temperature sensor.