Rover 25, Engine Overheating.

Hey.

So I've a 2003 Rover 25 with 31k miles.

For the past 2/3 weeks the fans been staying on for 15-20seconds after I turn the car off and I can sometimes get a burning smell.
I don't really drive long journeys or many days so I didn't put much thought into it until today.

I drove about 13 miles today with stops after 4/5 on 2 occasions.
I was taking note of the temperature gauge and it was definitely higher than usual at about 65/70%.
After driving the second 5/6 miles trek I started to notice the gauge getting very high and turning the fan on seemed to make it drop down to the midway point.
However towards the end of the journey the gauge started nearly topping out and the heat being on wasn't making any difference at this point.

I've since checked the Coolant and it's basically gone.
Not sure was it leaking but I only serviced the car two weeks ago and wasn't informed by the garage of any problems or if they topped it up and it's since being lost(I'm thinking they didn't touch it).
My oil looked empty as well and I even put 0.5LTRs in that myself after the service.

I was also informed by a relation late last week that he saw what looked like oil under the car in the past 2 weeks and to check it myself when it was dry.

What's the most likely scenario here?
It seems to drive fine but the fan consistently stays on after I stop the car, even if only driving a KM.

colm_mcm

You know the 25 is notorious for head gasket failure?

kona

Does it start on the button or take a while !?

colm_mcm

colm_mcm wrote: »

You know the 25 is notorious for head gasket failure?

Not big into cars, but yes I did hear that.
I bought it 3 years ago for E1600 with 21k miles on it, so wasn't a bad investment.

kona wrote: »

Does it start on the button or take a while !?

I had starting trouble for about a week running up to the service, this is what made me press ahead immediately.
I was having awful trouble starting it, mainly on the second drive i.e would go to it after a night, started fine, go into the shop for two mins and then would take a few goes to start. It was also jumpy at times.
Then the day before the service the starting problems stopped completely.
Starts fine now again but the fan continues to stay on.

basamin

it could be the inlet manifold gasket gone , same thing happened to my 45 a couple of months after the head gasket went , cheap and easy fix if you know your way around cars

johnnydeep

boilover rover these are bic engines

kona

gilberto_eire wrote: »

Not big into cars, but yes I did hear that.
I bought it 3 years ago for E1600 with 21k miles on it, so wasn't a bad investment.



I had starting trouble for about a week running up to the service, this is what made me press ahead immediately.
I was having awful trouble starting it, mainly on the second drive i.e would go to it after a night, started fine, go into the shop for two mins and then would take a few goes to start. It was also jumpy at times.
Then the day before the service the starting problems stopped completely.
Starts fine now again but the fan continues to stay on.

I'd say your head gasket is shot if you were having trouble starting and overheating. White smoke would be a give away. Get a compression test done to see what the story is. If it is gone and you choose to fix it , get the modified gasket .

harg90

whatv boils faster than an elecrtic kettle?

a rover 25 :L

your more than likly looking at a head gasket on inlet manif gasket.

is the burning smell kind of sweet?

its also posible that the thermostat housing is leaking and dripping onto your exhaust and burning off, ie, no leak on the ground, and i thint there may be a metal coolant pipe running from your w/p around the back of the block, these also end up leaking, and drip onto exhaust.

bring it to a good indy and theyl pressure test it, if theres no imediat sign of a leak, get them to shake the inlet manifold (quite strongly), this will help show if the inlet geasket is gone, (the preasure will drop very slightly when shook).

Updating this again as I have some progression.

Anyway can't believe it was actually April this started, I thought it was June or so.

Anyway the coolant continued to disappear at a fairly slow rate over the next while from the OP.
Sometimes I may not have noticed any had gone.

I eventually brought it to a mechanic and he looked at it outside.
Couldn't see any sign of a leak so told me I'd be aswell off holding onto it.

So I got some of the Radweld for the coolant tank and since my tank is small, I got two uses out of it.
I'm not sure did it do anything as it seemed to still go down at the same slow rate.

I went a good two months then without even checking the level to find it empty again, that was around 6 weeks ago.
And since then it's been shooting down at a much higher rate.
So much so I had to add some water just to keep something in it over a day period, couldn't keep buying coolant.

Anyway 3/4 weeks ago, the GF's father gave me two litres out of a big drum he had and filled the tank up.

I've just used the remainder of the second bottle he gave me and I haven't driven much.

So yesterday I put some Coolant in and didn't drive the car until today.
I checked it before leaving earlier and it was more or less where it was yesterday so it doesn't appear to leak when it's cool.

I drove about 3/4KM and spent 2/3 hours in college, came out decided to check underneath and the tank and could see a dripping behind the driver wheel...about a drip every 15-20seconds.
Tank had nearly emptied the 500ml I put in yest evening.

So I know now where it's leaking from, and it's most definitely 100 times worse than it was last April as the mechanic spent 10mins looking then and couldn't see anything dripping.
Very easy to spot now.
Took 7 months to progress to this so what are the possibilities?.

Water pump/radiatior?.

harg90

well if its behind the drivers wheel, i very much doubt its the rad...
its a while since iv worked on a rover (thank god) but as far as i remember the thermostat housing is at the back of the block on the o/s of the engine, the seal on them and the housing itself both used to give abit of bother..
its possible its the wather pump.
your best plan would be to bring it to a good local indy, let him pressure test it and he should have no bother finding it at this stage if its leaking at that rate.

and what evey you do, dont let it overheat, they dont tke it well, and it you may have to do a gasket onit sooner rather than later.