I've recently had some work done on my car, cam seals, cam belt, rocker covers, water pump.

Long story short after this work was done, it appears they forgot to reconnect the top radiator pipe, so 1 hour into my 2 hour journey car was over heating and steam out the engine bay. Pulled over, shut it down and call roadside assistance. Got it taken back to garage after the road side assistance had found what went wrong, pipe was loose and caused it to rub against fan belt, which split the top hose pipe.

Anyways since taking the car back to the garage they done a compression test on the engine and replaced the top and bottom radiator pipes. However since then my fan keeps kicking in, even when I keep the car below 2500 revs on a 10 minute journey, I can't say exactly when it kicks in because car is abit noisy. However when I pull up somewhere I can hear and feel the fan is already on, I sat there for 4 minutes at one point and it stayed on until I turned my engine off.

Temp gauge in the car is reading fine, sitting just below half way. Any ideas what the problem could be ?

Thanks

 

air lock.

 

That's what Google said, it also says to check this. Turn heaters on, if they get hot, no air lock. My heaters get hot

 

What year is the car?

 

2004, blobeye.

 

You sure your air conditioning is off? as its fan will run all the time.

 

I don't use the AC, especially in this weather.

 

Pretend they don't and go thru the procedure anyway, all it will cost you is a little time.

 

Subscribed please let us know what it was please I reckon might be airlock but still curious to see actual outcome of the problem good luck solving it mate

 

Well it's in at the garage who did the work, won't name the garage. It's not a back street garage before anyone asks :-)

 

Doesn't surprise me. There's still plenty out there who think filling the coolant system is straightforward and any mistakes can be rectified by burping/bleeding.

Wrong on both counts. Let's hope it's not done your head gaskets.

 

Mistakes do happen and we are all only human mate if it's a decent garage they'll sort it without any further hassle regardless of damage caused as they left the hose pipe loose mistakes do happen how they get rectified is the answer we are looking forward to

 

Agreed.

 

Well they've just called me to say they can't get it to do it, they can't get the fan to kick in, which I find very hard to believe. I've had a couple of problems with this "top garage"

Thinking I might have to pay another garage to diagnose it then try claim money back from this garage because they don't seem capable of doing a simple job... Drive the car at about 70-80 mph for 10 minutes

Very disappointed to say the least

 

Just collected the car. I got there and they said all good. I asked what they couldn't do ? They're response was they couldn't even get the fan to come on, they told me it could be the AC fan I'm hearing. I responded with there's no chance, I don't use the AC.

They then tried to tell me the fan is suppose to come on at some point, I said I understand when a fan works, I'm not a complete idiot. They seems abit stunned that I wasn't taking there bull s**t for an excuse. They then continued to ramble on in the end made an agreement they will order a switch and replace that.

However I have just got home, following my partners 1.2 Vauxhall cords. It's dark, windy and rainy, followed her home in the slow lane as lorries over took us, embarrassing. When I got home, fan was on again, so how they managed to not get the fan to even come on is beyond me, suppose to be a reputable garage.

 

This is not looking good, is it?

We had similar last week with a self-styled Renault Sport "specialist" in Doncaster: https://www.scoobynet.com/non-scooby...ecialists.html

Ended up costing the lad £200...money he hasn't got.

And today, getting my Corsa MoT done, described the lad's car symptoms to the garage owner, his FIRST words: "Disconnected or unservicable Lambda sensor?"

There are some rogues out there masquerading as specialists.

 

Just took the car back to the garage so they could fit this "switch"

Got there, fan was on.. Obviously. Went straight in, leaving the engine on. Stop to the receptionist and they sent the engineer straight out to the car park, he looked over, he said it's strange both fans are on ? (I didn't know it has 2 but whatever) waited afew minutes and he said something not right, should have turned off by now.

Checked engine temp gauge all was good, gave it afew revs for whatever reason, fans still on, he tried squeezing the top radiator hose and said that there's not enough pressure ? Almost like the head gaskets are gone ?

Went back into office and he told receptionist it's not the switch that needs changing, it's a bigger job. I'm not saying it is head gaskets but he said it's a possibility ?

So in my opinion when all this first happened and they did a pressure test in my engine and it passed ? Surely it should have failed then if head gaskets have gone ? Or my heaters shouldn't work ? I don't know a great deal about cars so any tips would be great.

Anyways I have courtesy car and had to leave the car with them. Will keep posted when I have more info

 

Just hope they rectify it mate without further excuse as you don't deserve it and it ain't the cars fault keep that in mind and all will be well mate

 

Did they not do a sniff test there and then?

I'm getting the idea this mechanic" isn't up to much?

 

Nah I reckon they'll rip the thermostat out and try to bleed the system and give him car back at which point he won't know any better and they'll wash there hands off him as he'll be fed up OR they could replace the head gasket without anymore ****erey and sort it and he'll be sorted but it don't look good as you say mate

 

They won't f**k me over, once they say car is all sorted and I feel as though it's running how it should I'll take to another garage to have it checked over, then go back if they say something isn't right.

When you say they do this kind of job to f**k me over, this is literally as too as it gets for garages, I doubt there is a better garage lol

 

being honest if the HG is gone the top hose is rock hard,
as said a sniff test rather then a compression test is the best place to start,
a compression test may show poor compression on one cylinder, but that doesnt mean it is a HG issue at all,
that could be valve or piston ring problems.

 

If it does turn out to be head gaskets, the smart money replaces the bottom end bearings at the same time. Trust me...no-one told me and mine destroyed the bottom end about 4 months later.

 

Nah it's not to **** you over mate it's the incompetence followed by arrogance from the garage side that leads to a bad experience. hopefully we'll get a positive turn out mate to have a good ending to this unpleasent experience, as you said it's not a back street garage so fingers crossed

 

Might be stupid question but what is a sniff test ?

 

They withdraw some water from the cooling system with a thing like a turkey baster, mix it with some chemical and if it changes colour it show's there's hydrocarbons present, so the HG must be leaking.

 

Cheers, might mention that to them tomorrow. They have kept car over night, I'm stuck with s terrible courtesy car in my drive way 😓

 

I had this exact same problem, turned out to be a airlock. I used a big funnel in the top of the radiator and brimmed it with water + anti-freeze and kept burping the system then topped up the header tank. There a real nightmare to do.

 

Even doing that, you are lucky to have cured it.

You can't bleed a Scoob cooling system, so drain and refill after doing a search on here under my name for how to without airlocking.

 

Have you had a leak recently, or any work done on the cooling system?