Opinion needed on possible failure reason

[sstraub]

Hi there!

I'm a relatively new Rover 75 enthusiast. I've had my 2003 Petrol automatic Rover 75 V6 Saloon for about 3 months. Bought it at 60K miles and I've driven roughly 3K miles on it. I really love the car. Probably one of the best cars I've ever owned. Had the oil changed about 2 weeks ago.

Here's my question now.

I drove the Rover to IKEA, no problems. Parked the car. Went inside IKEA, and wife kept us there for roughly 3 hours. Finally came out with bunches and bunches of cheaply made IKEA stuff and drove maybe half a mile to Burger King. Went through the drive thru to get a snack. Had to wait in the queue for about 5-10 minutes. The moment I received my bag, my eyes saw the temperature gauge and the red light had come on. Then I saw steam come out from under the bonnet.

I immediately pulled into the car park, turned the car off, opened the bonnet and steam came out. The coolant was steaming and leaking onto the ground. I called Green Flag and they came out. We opened the coolant reservoir and it was basically empty. We refilled it with water, turned on the car and the stuff that had originally leaked was steaming off. But no more coolant was leaking out. We had the car running for a good 15 minutes and the fan never came on. But the car also didn't overheat anymore. The Green Flag technician said he didn't feel ok with me driving the car, because something else might break and he doesn't have the tools to check thoroughly what the problem is.

He said he thinks the fan is broken, because it should have come on a few times while we were running the car.

Had the car towed home that night. In the morning I drove the car 2 miles to the garage, no overheating problem.

I dropped off the car for investigation. As we were doing the paperwork, the mechanic said "well, could be the head gasket" (darn, that sounds expensive). I did quite a bit of research and all things I read, it doesn't sound like HGF (but then again, what do I know?)

So here's my question. Could this be a HGF? What's the likely problem? And If I have it fixed, what price should I expect from the garage?

I really appreciate any help and opinions you guys might have!

-Sebastian

[andre372]

Probably just the fan...

[stocktake]

Unlikely to be headgasket but they do fail on the KV6. The dial on the dash is poor, it will stay in the middle 9 o clock reading from 75 deg to 115 dg

For the car to overheat it would have to have all the speeds of the fan fail (could be a two or three speed set up)
what has probably brought this on is lack of water, there are known weak spots on the KV6 from the thermostat to the radiator expansion tank cap.
How often do you check the water level?
To check the low speed of the fan you need to start the engine and press the demist button in the cab on the A/C. Go to the front of the car and the rad fan should be running on a slow speed and should run continuous.

Hope this helps you start your diagnosis

[Amsca2]

Fix the fan first and take it from there.

[Lord of Hog]

What they said.

Unless the car has had a serious overheat earlier in its life it's unlikely to be the head gasket. I'm not saying they never fail, but they're unlikely to under normal circumstances.

Check the fan by all means, as failure to do so is just saving up more problems for later. Also find out where the coolant was actually coming from. It's always tricky tracing liquids but at least the OAT coolant dries to a nice pink which is pretty easy to see. Start off looking at your expansion chamber, then follow the three hoses that go to the thermostat, then have a look at the thermostat itself (take off the acoustic cover and have a look and a good sniff through the openings in the manifold at the V between the two cylinder heads). It may also be that, having lost some coolant and re-filled it whilst warm, you've now got some air bubbles in the system which will need persuading to come out as per the procedure in your Haynes manual.

[klarzy]

Please note it is an expansion tank and not a reservoir... There should be about 1CM of coolant in the bottom... Do not fill it up...!!!

Put your demist button on... Does the fan start?

[sstraub]

Ok here's the update on my progress:

Took the car in, mechanic said radiator is leaky and fan is probably shot.
He got a radiator replacement, no problem.
Then he said he had trouble locating a fan+motor. Finally found one, but turned out to be the wrong one. Then he said I probably don't need a new fan anyway, because he cleaned the fan and it's turning now, although only on speed 1 of 2.
Picked up the car, and lo and behold, it did the same thing. Overheated while being in a queue (seems to especially happen when I'm in Drive and holding the break, but then again, I might be making this up).

So spoke to the mechanic again and he said we should exchange the fan+motor. But he also said he has a real hard time finding a fan and motor. I have a hard time believing that because whenever you read about the Rover 75 people say that getting getting parts isn't hard.

I can see some fan+motor combos on ebay.co.uk, but he keeps saying that that's probably the wrong fan/motor. Would you guys help me find a fan/motor combo on ebay that's correct? Or, maybe you guys have some sort of hidden cache somewhere, some guy selling Rover parts, a better place than ebay to buy from?

I just can't believe that it would be this hard to get a replacement part for a car that has such a strong following of enthusiasts...?

Thank you for all your help!

2003 automatic V6 2.5 Petrol Rover 75 Saloon

[klarzy]

Originally Posted by sstraub

Ok here's the update on my progress:

Took the car in, mechanic said radiator is leaky and fan is probably shot.
He got a radiator replacement, no problem.
Then he said he had trouble locating a fan+motor. Finally found one, but turned out to be the wrong one. Then he said I probably don't need a new fan anyway, because he cleaned the fan and it's turning now, although only on speed 1 of 2.
Picked up the car, and lo and behold, it did the same thing. Overheated while being in a queue (seems to especially happen when I'm in Drive and holding the break, but then again, I might be making this up).

So spoke to the mechanic again and he said we should exchange the fan+motor. But he also said he has a real hard time finding a fan and motor. I have a hard time believing that because whenever you read about the Rover 75 people say that getting getting parts isn't hard.

I can see some fan+motor combos on ebay.co.uk, but he keeps saying that that's probably the wrong fan/motor. Would you guys help me find a fan/motor combo on ebay that's correct? Or, maybe you guys have some sort of hidden cache somewhere, some guy selling Rover parts, a better place than ebay to buy from?

I just can't believe that it would be this hard to get a replacement part for a car that has such a strong following of enthusiasts...?

Thank you for all your help!

2003 automatic V6 2.5 Petrol Rover 75 Saloon

Contact Jules....
Fan and motor may be fine but control resistor pack shot...

[T-Cut]

Originally Posted by sstraub

Then he said I probably don't need a new fan anyway, because he cleaned the fan and it's turning now, although only on speed 1 of 2.

You need to determine the fan version fitted to the car. A 2003 model may have the later 2-speed or the earlier 3-speed. The easiest way to check is to look through the front radiator grill and look at the fan blades. The blades can be turnd using a cane (etc) if necesary so you can see through them at the 2 o'clock position. Can you see a thin aluminium 'block' screwed to the fan guard? If so, that's the slow speed resistor which needs replacing. These photos are from Arctic's HowTo:



You need the 'gold' upgrade which can be got from the forum traders, ebay or electronics outlets. It's a bumper off job to fix it and not difficult if you can use a spanner and screwdriver.



If it has no aluminium resistor as described, the solution is more complex and/or expensive.

The reason for the overheat and coolant ejection may not be just the from the loss of slow speed fan. The cooling system may have a leak, which is commonly caused by a splt thermostat housing on the V6. To check that, remove the large plastic cover on the engine and look into the V between the heads. There may well be a pool of coolant or dried up residues from the coolant. If so, you need a new stat housing. This is a slightly complex task.

If one or other job is beyond your capabilities, there are plenty of traders and members around the country who will help you. Avoid the nearest garage.

TC

[Avulon]

Originally Posted by T-Cut

You need to determine the fan version fitted to the car. A 2003 model may have the later 2-speed or the earlier 3-speed. The easiest way to check is to look through the front radiator grill and look at the fan blades. The blades can be turnd using a cane (etc) if necesary so you can see through them at the 2 o'clock position. Can you see a thin aluminium 'block' screwed to the fan guard? If so, that's the slow speed resistor which needs replacing. These photos are from Arctic's HowTo:



You need the 'gold' upgrade which can be got from the forum traders, ebay or electronics outlets. It's a bumper off job to fix it and not difficult if you can use a spanner and screwdriver.

TC

Just a word of warning - I fixed one last week where it had (apparently) been 'fixed' or at least messed about with before. We had come to the conclusion that it was a 3 speed fan as we couldn't see the resistor at the 2'o'clock position. Not untill we'd stripped the bumper and grill off could we see theh resistor tucked out of sight nearly (and out of airflow!) over on the nearside of the fan. A gold resistor was wired up and fixed in the proper place and the motor brushes saved for another day...

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