I have a Peugeot 306 2.0 XSi 16v 3dr Phase 3 and one Friday evening recently I set off home from work and noticed the heater was blowing icy cold air. About 10 to 15mins into the journey, I began to smell burning and saw the temp gauge beyond maximum and the stop light came on. I had two miles to go and was uneasy about risking it, but I did and when I pulled into my drive I saw steamy smoke rising from the bonnet. I switched off immediately and very carefully removed the radiator cap (yeah I know but I was VERY careful!); the build up of pressure was released but no water came out as it was almost empty, although only the radiator and not the whole system. I have not tried to drain and flush the system, or remove the thermostat etc as I am not familiar enough on how to do this just yet.
I left it to cool down overnight and thought I would fill it up and observe for 10 mins (did not need much to fill it). Hard to say if I could see a leak because it was just drips that could have been there from the day before, but I did not see anything constantly dripping or running etc. After about 8mins of running, the temp gauge was beyond maximum again. I went to the front of the car to see if the fans had come on, and noticed only one was working (the high speed/temp one); the other fan was jammed stuck and took a few turns with a screwdriver shaft before it could spin a little, but it did not continue to spin with power so must be well dead. I have no idea if this fan was working or not when I bought the car in March 2011, although I have not experienced any abnormal temperatures on the gauge even in summer and the radiator has always kept a full tank without losing water. Anyway back to the test, and I again removed the cap and this time the pressure pushed the cap up and water gushed out. The radiator tank was again empty save for what had settled back into the system, and there were regular gurgling noises of 1 second duration for the next half hour or so. I have not tried to flush the system, as I do not know how yet or if it is worth doing.
I also watched the exhaust because my mother had mentioned it pouring out a lot of crap. It did chuck out a very small cloud of light grey vapour. The exhaust has become more noisy over recent weeks, and I suspect has been blowing slightly from the front of the mid section. I had a look at the oil filler cap and it is clean as a whistle, not a speck of anything bad at all. The oil level is still full too.
Today (13-11-2011) I filled up the radiator again, which only took 1.5 litres and started up the engine to observe. Unlike last time it did not overheat or trigger the cooling fans (the left A/C one is not working though). There seemed to be less emissions from the exhaust and the temp gauge on the dash did not go anywhere near max.
The car has run like a dream since I bought it and seems to be in lovely condition overall, and I have only done an oil and filter change on it so far. The previous owner had done 15,000 miles in the previous year before I got it, but the car has had full main dealer services every single year since new. The last recorded full service was January 2010, at T.K. Jaques-Smith, Birchwood Lane, South Normanton. The car has done 130,000 miles overall.
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Happy to say all the noise from the previous timing belt has gone, and the car runs at a lower temperature while driving. The radiator A/C fan is coming on when it should and is very quiet (the old one was very noisy). The fog light I bought second hand from Ebay in March this year, is now fitted and working.
EgoShredder 3 months ago
Car has been repaired at a cost of £601.42 inc. VAT of which £247.50 was labour costs.
I had the following parts fitted (prices include VAT):
(1) Water pump £32.70
(2) Radiator £74.34
(3) Radiator fan £97.20
(4) Timing kit £70.74
(5) Brake discs £22.92 each
(6) Brake pads £22.44 per pair
(7) Antifreeze £4.26 per litre
EgoShredder 3 months ago
I'm getting the car back tomorrow, so hopefully everything will be ok and hopefully the air con still works and the heater matrix. I hear sometimes fixing other related stuff can cause these to stop working.
EgoShredder 3 months ago
Last Thursday afternoon some diagnostic equipment confirmed hot water was being pumped around the system, because the tools traced the heat as it travelled around the car. The radiator was leaking and probably caused air to get in and cause the overheating problem. The left cooling fan had died and needed replacing, which I already suspected anyway.
The cam-belt and water pump have been replaced because the belt has done 59,000 miles of mainly motorway driving I think and I was feeling nervous!
EgoShredder 3 months ago