Advice on Carina E radiator

sagit

Hi, I need your advice about blocked radiator of my Carina E.

There are some facts:

1. The car gets worm (red area on the gauge) if a heating is off.
2. When I turn the heating and fan on, the engine remains in stable / correct level.
3. Radiator is hot on the top, but just worm on the bottom / I can touch it without getting burned.
4. I tried clean it out with some cleaninig fluid, but it did not help.

Does anyone know who cleans a radiators in Dublin area?

regards,
Sagit

p.s.

thermostat is fine, I have checked it in boiling water, it opens when boiled.

Avns1s

It could still be the thermostat. They should open at something about 82C IIRC. It might not be opening in time.

It could also be the water pump failing to circulate the water or the fan not switching on.

Of course, it could be the radiator but they dont usually get blocked like this if you have used coolant.

CJhaughey

1.Disconnect the top and bottom hoses and run a hose through until the water clears, this may also remove some debris that is stopping the rad from leaking;)

2.Go to a breaker and try and find a good second hand rad.

sagit

CJhaughey wrote:

1.Disconnect the top and bottom hoses and run a hose through until the water clears, this may also remove some debris that is stopping the rad from leaking;)

2.Go to a breaker and try and find a good second hand rad.

That is it, any idea how much should it cost? Just around?

crosstownk

There should be a difference between the top and bottom rad hoses. Coolant takes heat from the engine and dumps it into the radiator to be cooled. If the radiator is doing it's job then there should be a difference between top and bottom hoses.

If the temp guage rises then you could have a number of faults. The thermostat could be faulty as avens1s said. The coolant pump impellars could be worn/corroded resulting in lack of circulation of coolant. You could have an airlock (unlikely). TBH, the chances of a radiator being at fault are slim. Have the coolant system rechecked.

crosstownk

sagit wrote:

p.s.

thermostat is fine, I have checked it in boiling water, it opens when boiled.

Fine - but at what temperature - it should open about 15C before boiling. Have you measured the water temp as it opens? I'll assume that it's a wax stat which means that it may be opening at too high a temperature. Replace it first - cheaper than a new rad.

BrianD3

It's possible that your temperature gauge is faulty. The gauge in one of our cars consistently reads about 15 degrees hotter than it should. Do not assume that your gauge is faulty though!

Re: thermostats, I'd agree with the advice to change this first as it is a cheap and easy thing to try. I have always found the boiling water test a good indication of whether a thermostat is working. However if the Carina is designed to use a "cool" thermostat then the test may not be appropriate.

Other cheap things to try could be
-replace the cap on the rad/expansion tank
-make sure the correct coolant is in there. AFAIK if you have too high a concentration of antifreeze the boiling point of the coolant will be higher but the engine will also run slightly hotter as antifreeze doesn't have the same specific heat capacity as water.

pwee

U wil get a new rad for 110-130(a danish company makes them) they have a silver metal core rather than the copper core on yours(ie looks black wth tinges of red).

BrianD3

pwee wrote:

U wil get a new rad for 110-130(a danish company makes them) t

Nissens? I have one and it seems good.

To the OP, the overheating in your car may be a combination of a couple of things and the cooling system being old and inefficent. A Carina E is around 10+ years old and if it has the original rad it will have many bent fins and the inside will have deposits. This will affect efficiency. If you also have a slow to open thermostat as well you could find the car running noticably hotter.