Overheating Almera

[starky5 18]

First of all a couple of disclaimers!

 

Firstly sorry if this is the wrong place for this topic, I know its nothing to do with 205's but you guys have saved me when working on my 205 more than a few times so I'm hoping it can happen again.

 

Secondly please don't judge me for owning a V-reg Nissan Almera! Its a cheap temporary car that I could do with lasting 8/9 months.

 

So my problem is the car has started to overheat big time and it doesn't matter if I'm flat out in the cold or crawling in the morning traffic it takes the same short amount of time. The car was driving fine and this has started happening out of the blue. The coolant reservoir is still full and there are no signs of leaks but the radiator appears to be empty and with the engine running there is no movement of the coolant in the reservoir (although I only let the car run from cold for a couple of mins). Also the heaters blow cold even when the engine is so hot that it cuts out.

 

Now I was thinking this could be a thermostat or water pump issue but when i found the radiator and pipes empty I started to wonder if it could be anything else.

 

Any suggestions?

 

Thanks

[barneys66 122 1 Cars]

I'm no expert but it sounds like you have a leak and dumped the coolant - have you tried refilling the radiator to see if that helps (temporarily)..? Ignore what's showing in the overflow / expansion tank.

 

Heater should still get hot even if the thermostat was stuck shut. What does the temperature gauge say..?

 

 

If no signs of an external leak check for mayo on the oil fill cap.

[toolie72 67 1 Cars]

Blocked radiator? Massive airlock? One of the boys at work had this on a BMW-drain water, flush rad (fill top if it piddles out bottom should be ok) then refill-if it's supposed to take say 6 litres and only takes four then try lifting reservoir/bleeding rad

[Slo 283 1 Cars]

Just take the thermostat out and leave it out

[allye 530 3 Cars]

Seized water pump?

[allye 530 3 Cars]

That's a stupid suggestion. Cambelt wouldn't like that. Ignore me and proceed.

[welshpug 1,657]

no, quite a valid suggestion as many are aux belt driven.

[Ozymandis 97]

Stat or w/pump

[GLPoomobile 958]

By the description it sounds like there is no water flow occurring so surely it would have to be either the pump not working, or a complete blockage somewhere. Can you work out where the first hose joint is down-stream of the pump, disconnect it and see if there's any flow with the engine running?

[jackherer 543]

Some cars have plastic impellers on their water pumps and they can end up slipping on the shaft. I diagnosed it on a mates Alfa 166, it was fine on the drive or crawling about at low revs but anything else and it overheated instantly. When I looked in the expansion tank there was some flow at idle but when I revved it to about 2.5/3k RPM the flow suddenly stopped totally. I replaced it with a pump with a metal impeller from a different model and it's still fine now six or seven years later.

[GLPoomobile 958]

Yep, same thing happened on my 166 V6, although mine was more of a gradual failure indicated by a worsening whining noise, and didn't suffer any overheating.