Mike Duffy

That's exactly what I did! Had a starter and an alternator off Andy and they've both been spot on.

Sorry boys! Still here. Not sorted it yet as I'm more concerned with sourcing the split PAS pipe I've now got! I think I'll keep that to another thread! Tried bleeding the cooling system today though to see if there were any air bubbles in it. Took the rad cap off and ran the engine for a bit. The level just rose ever so slightly and dispelled a small amount of water. But after a while (about 10 mins), some air bubbles started coming through. I hadn't expected to have to run it for this long to see any. Any thoughts on this? This carried on for 3/4 hour. Eventually, I had to stop as I had to be somewhere else. So I'll see if there's any improvement tomorrow. Cheers guys.

Hey Stu Car's still working great. So whatever equipment you want to borrow, give me a shout. Cheers

Had exactly the same problem mate. It degrades the longer you leave it. You sound like a tw@t trying over and over to get it to bite on the teeth. Get a second hand starter and your problem's cured.

Hey I like the look of the polisher on that page. Might be tempted.

Beats me too mate :shock:

Well I'm staying out of this one 'coz I haven't got a clue!

I'm with the AA. Had to call them out just the once. They turned up in twenty minues with a low loader and took me straight home. The guy told me that they only send low loaders out to our cars now as they won't even attempt to try and fix it. Was only half an hour late home in the end.

Rad's brand new. Thermostat, water pump, Smithy's hoses all brand new and fitted by me. Definately the right way round. Car warms up at the right rate and stops bang on when the thermostat opens. It will then stay very stable for a long time, until about half an hour motorway driving or ten mins in a jam. It's been like this for two and a half years now, no better, no worse. Turn the heater on and everything's fine. Leave it on for about five mins to return everything to normal then you can turn it off again. I've just had the engine out and changed all sorts of crap. It still starts to go to hot at exactly the same point on the way to work as it did before I took the engine out.

Agreed. If the small additional effort provided by the heater can sort it, there's nothing serious wrong. Good idea about locking up the fan manually though. Never thought of that. Some beefy cable ties may sort that out. I'll give it a go next week.

This makes sense to me. Does anyone disagree that the fan should get more difficult to turn the hotter the coupling gets?

Yeh, had the problem on the old rad as well. Can't be anything other than the coupling surely? I know fluid flywheels and torque convertors work on the fluid dynamics of the oils inside them as apposed to their viscosity. But surely the coupling should stiffen up as it gets hotter.

Even replaced the fan mate! But I think you hit the nail on the head stating that it can't be serious if the tiny little "radiator" in the cabin heating system can bring it back under control. If this little thing can achieve what the great big thing under the bonnet can't, there's something very wrong with the great big thing under the bonnet!

I know what you mean but it's definately running way too hot. If you don't turn the heater on you can feel the change in the engine. And eventually, the water boils and pours out the overflow. It's only done this a couple of times a while back as I'm always ready with the heater now!

And that's a very good point! Thanks for the phone time mate!

Ok. The reason I ask this is I still have a problem somewhere with engine cooling. I've rebuilt the engine (for another reason!). I've changed the thermostat and water pump as part of the 60K service. I've had a new radiator as the original burst itself open. I've changed the radiator cap. I've changed every water hose in the engine. But still I've had this overheating problem for ages! It's exactly the same since all the new bits went on. At exactly the same point of my journey into work (give or take a mile), the temperature guage starts to rise. The only way of controlling it is to turn the heater on full. All I can think that is left in the cooling system is the viscous coupling. The electric fan is working. Everything else has been changed. What's left?!

Took the car to work today. A good 75 mile round trip. She felt superb. Still got exactly the same problem with engine temperatures rising at exactly the same point in the journey and requiring the heater to be turned on to cool it (I'll cover that in a different thread I think!) But the engine felt like it's never felt before. Had a slight hiccup when I managed to blow the stock hard pipe off the driver's side turbo 'coz I'd obviously not tightened it up properly. But after that was back on, everything was so so so pleasant to be back in the Zed.

No problem feller. Hope you make the right decision for you.

£410 including VAT mate. I've changed the pad specification to EBC red stuff though. I know some people don't like them for various reasons but it's what I've always preferred. I also got grooved disks and EBC green stuff for the rear from the same company. All in £660 including VAT.

I'm about to put these on mate. http://www.3gbrakes.co.uk/bigdiscconversion.htm

I did mate but I wasn't in Wigan. Drove to and from Oldham and had a great time. She's running absolutely perfectly. Better than she's ever been.

Hi mate. Connect the engine crane to the points shown in the attached picture. And no, you don't have to remove any manifolds.

I've done 75 miles in it today and it's been perfect. Very solid and very firm.

Ok. Step 1, get one of those Easibleed things from Halfords. The ones you connect to your brake reservoir and use the pressure from a tyre to pressurise it. Next, remove the clutch reservoir cover and dismantle it. You will need to remove the plastic insert and the rubber seal. Drill a hole through the cover and attached the Easibleed connection to this. Reattach the rubber seal and put the cover back on the reservoir. Finally tie down the cover with cable ties. When you pressurise the system, the cap will rise slightly as there's no way you can tie the cable ties tight enough to stop this. However, unlike the caps that come with the Easibleed, the existing clutch reservoir cap has a seal that runs all the way down the side. So you can hold the pressure. Now follow the normal Easibleed instructions and open the bleed points underneath and under the bonnet one after the other. Do it a few times to be sure. You can get a litre of fluid through in about five mins. Much easier than the hours spent doing it the manual way. I went from nothing in the system to a working clutch in less than 10 minutes. Afterwards, reassemble the clutch cap so the plastic insert covers the hole you made. I'm not sure how permanent this covering is so I may need to purchase a second hand cover. I'll let you know.

Nope. That just makes it worse.