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Model specific boards => Golf mk1 => Topic started by: VWaxilMK1cab on 04 July 2006, 18:39
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What are the 2 senders in the top pipe going from the block to the rad?
My car keeps running really sh!te since replacing the rad and my temp guage on the dash (which never used to work) is now shooting straight over to the hot end, even when i just turn the ignition on (i.e. engine hasn't even been started) and it stays there.
The expansion tank level light flashes too.
Anyone recommend where to buy replacements for these sensors off the internet?
Cheers,
Chris
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black one is for the dash gauge, and symptoms for a knackered one are exactly as you describe (temp at max and warning light flash)
The other one is probably for the 5th injector or cold start valve, what engine does it have fitted?
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Hiya, it's a 1992 Mk1 Cabriolet with a 1.8 GTI lump in it.
I also noticed that it was making a slight grating noise when running the other day & almost stalled on tick-over. I'm really not happy about driving it in this condition.
Does anyone know if the other sensor has anything to do with the water temp feed to the ecu? or is it the thermostat opening sensor.
Please excuse my ignorance! I do computers, not cars!!! ;o)
Chris
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hmm, is it a digifant or k-jet? If the other sender is blue and has 2 pins its likley to be for the ECU. The thermostat isnt electrical, it has a lump of wax inside which expands & contracts ;)
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The temperature sender on the Mk1 of this age is on top of the expansion tank. I had a similar problem some months ago with the gauge and warning light showing red after a few minutes running. I changed the sender (Approx. £11.00) but the problem persisted.
I believe that it was caused by an airlock which I induced when I changed the coolant, eventually the airlock worked it way out of the system and calm prevailed.
However, this is not an answer to your problem.
I suggest that you get a 'sniff' test carried out on your coolant, in case you have any water contamination of the motor i.e. head gasket or cylinder head crack. Otherwise the next few days will be very expensive.
Has the vehicle had a conversion to the motor or is it a standard GTi Cabby?
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The temperatrue sender is in the flange on the front of the head, the one in the header tank is the coolant level sender ;)
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Hiya,
Apologies for delay in my reply. Been off on hols and have bought a cheap punto in the meantime to run around in. Although I have been using the golf recently as the punto had a flat tyre (and is awful to drive compared to the golf!! ;) ).
My problems are still continuing though...
Since changing the radiator, i think it may be an airlock problem.. It seems to use a litre of water for every 50 miles, but no traces of any water leaking under the car, or around the expansion tank.
My temp guage problems were fixed by changing the black temp sender on the pipe coming from the top of the engine. There is also a blue one there, but i dont know what that is for??? (anyone know?).
It had been running ok for a week or two, it would get to temperature ok and the guage would read 2/3rd's accross before dropping back down to about 1/2 halfway across the guage. I presumed this was fairly normal, as they didn't put any coolant in it when fitting the rad as they said it was expensive and it would need flushing again soon to get any muck and sludge out of the system. so i decided to heed their advice and will fill with coolant when i'm satisfied that my problems are gone away. BUT!...
Tonight, after getting a new pressure cap for the expansion tank from GSF (mine was black with 2 small round thinks in it, the new one is blue with 1 large thing in it - i presume these are pressure release valves?)
It overheated on the way home! I thought it was because I'd been overtaking on the motorway, but when i got home, it spewed steam everywhere and the rad fan hadn't kicked in (it usually did from what i remember), and it didn't kick in until i had opened the bonnet and tried to fill the expansion tank back up - with cold water, which i thought was odd. So, I wondered if the thermostat switch which tells the fan to come on may be broken, but as I dont know where the sender lives, i thought I'd ask the experts (you guys! ;) )
.... extended over 2 posts as too long!....
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I'm sorry if this post sounds a bit scatty, I'm really disheartened and a bit pissed off with the car as I'd spent the whole weekend working on the golf with my girlfriends dad, changed the front disks & pads for some brembo ones which were on offer at GSF, we modded the oil breather so that it no longer pumps oily condensation back into the air inlet, we dropped the oil, swapped the filter & filled it back up with some nice oil & some "Wynn's oil treatment" which is meant to reduce wear and enhance the natural properties of the oil. We changed the fan belt (which started squeaking tonight when it overheated! altho it sounds more like the alternator squeaking than the belt!??!). We searched high & low for this damned water leak, but couldn't find one, so decided to let me replace the pressure cap today and see if it was that which was leaking a litre of water\steam a day (50 miles). When we had done, it ran so smoothly with the oil breather mod in place and I was chuffed to bits with the results. Especially as I've also just been paid out £1000 for a saxo which I wrote off a few months ago into the back of someone with a towbar! oops! anyway, I'd decided to spend the £1000 on the golf and priced up a black mohair roof, wheel refurbishing (i really like the look of alloys with the center powder coated black and the rims left silver - i thought this would look the dogs as the Brock b2 alloys i bought are deep dished 7" wide jobbies!) and I was also looking around for places to do me a full re-spray of the car - keeping it the same colour (rare white) but just making it all shiney and new! ;)
But, it looks like the damn engine has other plans for my £1000! :(
Another branch of the saga reared its ugly head too tonight, as when i was trying to work out why it had overheated tonight (working in the dark after it had cooled down, having to wave my arms around to get the sensor light on my garage to come on every 5 Min's!!) i had filled up the expansion tank and had started the engine to let it warm up, then i noticed that there was a faint whiff of petrol, upon closer inspection, it was coming from the fuel rail (i think thats what it is), over on the left of the rail, behind the round silver thing with a fabric coated pipe going into it, just next to the place where the fuel pipe connects to the rail i found traces of petrol which seemed to be seeping from somewhere (possibly the pipe) and running down the rail onto the injector.... "Bugger" i thought, "can things get any worse!". So I tried mopping up the petrol, thinking that maybe it was just hanging around for some other reason! but it kept, slowly, seeping down the rail!! ARSE!... so i turned the engine back off (water was leaking out of the expansion tank cap anyway by this point) and mopped up all traces of petrol, which did clear up so i thought I'd be able to see better where it was coming from. Whilst mopping it up, i did push the fuel pipe down onto its connector, just in case it had some muck or something in it causing it to leak, but it didn't seem to move at all (not that i expected it to with a jubilee clip on it!!) then i started the engine back up and low & behold, no more leak! so whether this was a one off random occurrence, or whether its waiting until i drive it to work in the morning to start off again, i do not know!! by any chance is this a common problem?
Oh dear, i seem to have wrote a bloody essay! Sorry about the length of the post. I hope it hasn't put you off reading it as I really am stuck. I do have a lot of passion for cars, but as you can probably tell, I'm not that great with them. By trade I work with computers and that is my area of expertise! So if I can pick anyones brains about my car, then I'll return the favor by way of computer assistance! ;) I love this car and I know it's a classic which would prefer to be locked up in a museum, but I'm sure that it has a few more years life left in it yet... I was looking forward to making it a minter with this spare grand that I wanted to spend on it, but after tonights episode, I'm tempted to throw the dosh at a motorbike (Africa twin) to get me to work & back! but that would mean that this golf may just get left to rot and I'm sure that would be a serious crime of the dub variety! ;) :D
Right, anyway, best get some sleep, else I'll be asleep at the side of the M1 waiting for the AA when i brake down in the morning.
I'm hoping someone will be able to help in some small way. Anything at this point would be greatly appreciated, so many thanks in advance (anticipation!).
Kind Regards,
Chris.
p.s. to answer the questions posed earlier in the thread; It's a K reg 1992 Mk1 Golf Cabriolet "Karman" with a factory fitted 1.8 gti 8v lump, which i think has a digifant ecu (altho i cant be sure - someone may be able to confirm from the year\spec?). The black temp sender i replaced for the dash guage was a 2 pin one. What is a "sniff" test? is it to test for an airlock? is there a way to clear one if there is? and would it cause me to have to keep topping the water up (every time the red light on the temp guage flashes - but temp is normal)
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Hi,
A sniff test is a chemical that you pour into a into a tool and insert into the top of the expansion tank. If combustion gases are there the chemical will change colour. Time to get the head off :cry:.
It sounds to me like the head gasket has gone, that is a lot of water to be using, with no leak. I assume that there is no coolant inside of the car (leaking heater matrix, the thing that gives you warm air) else you'd be swiming. The VW lumps bleed really easily, fill them and that is pretty much it, if the rad is blocked, it will present a problem, not for you as you have had this replaced, check to see if the skinny hose from the rad to the expansion bottle has not become blocked (un-clip it from the rad, remove the pressure cap and blow down it) Is there excessive white smoke from the exhaust, a few whispy bits is ok, but she should be pretty much clear (white = water. black = excessive fuel, running too rich. blue = oil)
Take a few photoes of the engine with load of arrows, number them, post it and we will do our best to tell you what the bits are and it will make life a sh1t load easier to identifi the lump you have in there. It sounds like you have a lump from a late 8v tin top, the cabs used the old k-jetronic lumps... as far as I am aware.
Hope this sheds a little light on the biggest hair loss and bank ballance destroyer... the :evil:GOLF :evil:
Cheers
kraM
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Ok, the blue temp sender is for the ECU, you might as well replace it with a newun from VW while you're messing about with it.
Next thing I'd do is replace the 2 plastic flanges on the front & RHS of the head, as these are a common place for small leaks. Also, since you have relaced the cap & its still boiling out, I'd think about replacing the header tank. If you can be bothered try to get a later MK2 round tank as they are a better design, you'll need to get the bracket to go with it and figure out a way to attach it to the chassis leg. You may need a longer pipe to the bottom of the tank as well.
It sounds to me like the leak is preventing the system from pressurising, which will make the coolant boil too early.
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Thanks for the replies chaps, sounds like its not pressurising hence getting hot quick.
I'll take some more pics, but I've got one for ya just now that I'm unsure of.
It's like a rubber green thing on a pipe at the back of the engine. It's been taped up at some point in it's life as the clutch cable has rubbed through it! it looks like it's leaked oil or something all over too as you can see in the pic. I just wanted to know what it is for and is it essential that i replace it?...
(http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m280/waxil/DSC00504.jpg)
(http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m280/waxil/DSC00503.jpg)
I also noticed a slight wet patch on the block, just behind the dizzy cap, where the split for the head gasket is I think. looks like it was evaporating straight away, so it could be my leak? if so, then it's only very small, so i wondered if some radweld may sort it? or is it a new head gasket?
Cheers,
Chris.
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never seen one of those before, but I assume its part of the engine breather system? Can you take any photos of where it goes?
The wet patch is more likly to be coming from the flange on the front of the block, where all the temp senders are. Get a new one from VW or GSF, will cost you about £5-10. While you're there, do the other on on the RHS of the block they're both a common place for leaks.
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I'm sure I have seen that before and that it is a vaccuum line blanked off.
If I'm right, you certainly don't want that leaking.
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Yeah, it does look like it may have been a breather. it's a weird thing. I'll clean it up and make sure it's blocked better.
Another thing I've noticed recently are these white speckles of dust or something accumulating all over my dashboard. I keep cleaning them off, but a couple of days later it's covered again. I think it happens when i've had the heaters on hot. Could this be a sign of my overheating prob?
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Could be the heater matrix fins breaking up and then being blown through. I suspect the overheating won't be helping or could be accelerating this deterioration.
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:cry:
Is that bad?
I was looking at a new engine today. might be simplest solution. plus I could respray it while engine is out.
like the idea of a 1.8t 20v, but the sensible side of me likes the 1.9tdi or gt tdi.
it's a shame i daren't attempt something like that myself! could do with finding a reputable garage with experience of these conversions
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Not too bad. Heater matrix will usually fail by filling your footwell up with coolant. If your carpets are dry then its holding out :wink: Its probably just a little corrosion of the fins being blown through.
You do need to sort out the overheating though. You say there are no obvious coolant leaks. Are you sure the thermostat is opening?
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Easy way to check is that coolant shouldn't flow through the radiator until the engine is getting up to temp. So the hoses going to the rad and the rad itself should start off cool/warm and then as you approach operating temp they should get hot, as should the rad. That is when the thermostat has opened allowing the coolant to flow through the rad.
That would be my first line of attack in diagnosing your problem.
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Good news on a MK1 changing the heater matrix is an absolute doddle, remove the passenger side lower dash tray, disconnect the 2 pipes and it just slides out!
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Good news on a MK1 changing the heater matrix is an absolute doddle, remove the passenger side lower dash tray, disconnect the 2 pipes and it just slides out!
Easiest car that I ever done. Why they went away from that idea and started burying them in the dash, behind the heater I'll never know :rolleyes:
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Good news on a MK1 changing the heater matrix is an absolute doddle, remove the passenger side lower dash tray, disconnect the 2 pipes and it just slides out!
Easiest car that I ever done. Why they went away from that idea and started burying them in the dash, behind the heater I'll never know :rolleyes:
Cool. I'll keep an eye on it then.
As for my overheating, i've done 100 miles in it today and all is well. Since taking off the new expansion tank cap & putting my old one back on, it seems to be behaving. So i may try flushing out the system, then fill it back up with some proper coolant. Maybe a drop of radweld too, just to be on the safe side - do you know if radweld has any detrimental effects?
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I personally would not put any radweld in my car.
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I personally would not put any radweld in my car.
Why not? or just being precautious?
It is only to try and seal up my leaky head, til I can either A) replace the gasket & flow the head (regbuild) or B) replace the engine with a new one
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I personally would not put any radweld in my car.
Why not? or just being precautious?
It is only to try and seal up my leaky head, til I can either A) replace the gasket & flow the head (regbuild) or B) replace the engine with a new one
I've used it on old bangers that I've had to save myself some cash when I was younger and it worked, but I just don't like the idea of something in the cooling system maybe blocking more than the leaks. I guess I'm just being precautious.
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well I used radweld in mine and it clogged my heater matrix!
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well I used radweld in mine and it clogged my heater matrix!
Hmm, right, well maybe i'll stay away from radweld for the timebeing! My leak seems to have all-but-stopped now! I've not had to top it up for days!
Wish I could get it to act stable for 5 minutes, if it's broken, why doesnt it just stay broke! if it's ok, just stay ok!!!! bloody cars!
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Another thing I've noticed is if I start the car & drive with the heaters on cold and then turn them to hot, the windscreen steams up, totally! i have to stop & wait for it to clear.
If I set off with it set to warm, I also get it fogging up the screen but not as bad.
Why is this?
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Your matrix is dead, get a new one before it blows completly!
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<**NUMPTY WARNING!**>
Sorry, I'm useless with cars. where is the matrix located? & wat does it look like?
</Numpty warning>
;)
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It looks like a mini radiator, its located in the heat exchange box behind the dash. Easy to swap, drain you coolant then remove the passenger side dash under tray. You'll see 2 coolant hoses coming thru the bulkhead running to the hatrix, unclip the end cap, remove the 2 hoses then it just slides out!
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Nice one. I'll have a bash at that next weekend. Could explain the white soot i keep finding all over the dash too!