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[Mr Hagon]

Just thought I'd throw my hat into the ring to add to all the engine temp and heating troubles.

My symptoms are that the engine temp takes ages to hit 85, let alone 90, sometimes it barely achieves this at the end of a seven mile commute.

Secondly, the climate kicks out heat at the same fan speed for ages, i.e. it seems to lack intelligence to drop the speed when set to Auto at 20c.  It might drop it when the engine hits over 85c but I've not done a long enough run to know for sure.

So are the engine temp and cabin temp issues related?  Having read a number of threads I expect the engine temp is thermostat related, but is the cabin temp related or due to a faulty external/internal sensor?

When the weather was warmer it just seemed to chuck out hot air irrespective of the setting, except when I set it to LO and then it did come out a lot cooler.

Would be grateful for any suggestions.

[Entwood]

Methinks you have two distinct and separate problems ..

1. Engine temp low ... possibly thermostat stuck open. Start engine from cold (overnight) and allow to idle whilst holding the top hose ... the one from the thermostat to the radiator. If it slowly and steadily increases in temp then the thermostat is stuck open. If the thermostat is working then the water should remain cold until a sudden surge of hot occurs as the thermostat opens.

2. Climate is not "sensing" cabin temp for some reason ... one posibility is the "sampler fan" is not sucking air in... some folks have said this can be checked with a small piece of tissue against the grill but I've never done it...

[Mr Hagon]

Methinks you have two distinct and separate problems ..

1. Engine temp low ... possibly thermostat stuck open. Start engine from cold (overnight) and allow to idle whilst holding the top hose ... the one from the thermostat to the radiator. If it slowly and steadily increases in temp then the thermostat is stuck open. If the thermostat is working then the water should remain cold until a sudden surge of hot occurs as the thermostat opens.

Will have a go at this.  What are the implications of the thermostat being stuck open?

2. Climate is not "sensing" cabin temp for some reason ... one posibility is the "sampler fan" is not sucking air in... some folks have said this can be checked with a small piece of tissue against the grill but I've never done it...

Have nosed around the forum and found the reference to the sampler fan, but it wasn't clear if that applied to the facelift models... :-/

[Mr Hagon]

Little bit of an update here.  Changing the pollen filter seems to have improved the air flow so the climate now throttles back once the cabin is up to temp.  I've set the temp to the recommended 22c and all is well.  At least it wasn't the climate panel electronics  .

However for the first point the engine temp still doesn't get past 75c.  I've had someone take a look and they swear blind there isn't a problem but reading other threads the car should get to 85-90c.  What's even more bizarre is that when the needle lifts of the bottom it sometimes drops down again, possibly due to me turning on the climate.

So, should I still try Entwood's suggestion, or could it be something else?

[dbug]

On both of our minifacelifts, from a cold start, the temperature will rise to around 95șC then suddenly drop back to 90-92șC as thermostat opens, the slowly rise back up to 95șC running temperature.

HTH

[Ken L]

Little bit of an update here.  Changing the pollen filter seems to have improved the air flow so the climate now throttles back once the cabin is up to temp.  I've set the temp to the recommended 22c and all is well.  At least it wasn't the climate panel electronics  .

However for the first point the engine temp still doesn't get past 75c.  I've had someone take a look and they swear blind there isn't a problem but reading other threads the car should get to 85-90c.  What's even more bizarre is that when the needle lifts of the bottom it sometimes drops down again, possibly due to me turning on the climate.

So, should I still try Entwood's suggestion, or could it be something else?

Mine does this all the time, it'll start to rise then goes back down when I start to move at any speed, but if I've been in a lot of traffic and it's got thoroughly warm it tends to stay there then. Mine hasn't got climate control, just normal manual heater switches.

[Ken L]

Mine also takes ages for the needle to start to move in the first place, but the heater starts to blow warm after about 5 or 10 minutes.

[Andy H]

I had similar (but more pronounced) thermostat problems back in September.

I fitted a new thermostat and it now goes straight to 85 degC & then varies between 85 & 90 depending on driving conditions.

My last V6 would occasionally drop down again before it reached 85 & I put it down to there being a cold slug of coolant hitting the coolant bridge (where the temperature sensor is) when the thermostat first starts to open.

The thermostat & the temperature sensor are at opposite ends of the engine so they will see different temperatures until steady state conditions are achieved.

On the facelift the gauge doesn't register until 70 degC is reached and the heater will work pretty well at that temperature as long as there is plenty of flow.

[cruisetopoland]

My facelift 2.2 runs at just over 70 degrees most of the time, rises to 85ish at end of hot run, climate works fine.

Reading these posts, do I assume this is normal or that my stat is stuck open?  I have brought a spare with me in case of issues.

I will do the top hose test as noted on here later...

[Kevin Wood]

The engine temp. behaviour sounds normal to me. Mine will normally sit between 85 and 90 but in this cold weather is actually more like 80-85.

The increase to 85 ish followed by a drop again is where the thermostat first opens. The radiator is full of ice cold water in the first instance so the engine cools rapidly when the thermostat first opens. After that it stabilises.

Try the top hose test to make sure but it sounds like everything is OK to me. Note that earlier models had a different calibration of the gauge so appear to run at 90 odd instead of 80 odd.

Kevin

[tunnie]

My facelift 2.2 runs at just over 70 degrees most of the time, rises to 85ish at end of hot run, climate works fine.

Reading these posts, do I assume this is normal or that my stat is stuck open?  I have brought a spare with me in case of issues.

I will do the top hose test as noted on here later...

Yup, should run close to 85 all the time.

Currently half way though doing mother tunnies 3.0 stat, give me a 4 pot to work on any day 

[Bionic]

entwood is right on the mark, I am in the process of doing mine for the same reason. Not looking forwarsd to doing it in the cold either.
If you asre stuck for one, a thermo, I have a spare perfectly working used one and a new insert type repair kit. I will be cheaper than the dealers by a long way! Give me PM if you are interested.
GudLuk

[Big_Roger]

Hi,
Just a point on "Sampler fan" for cabin temperature control.

I presume it was from the start of the facelift model, but an 02 3.2L will not have a sampler fan to sense the cabin temperature.
System senses cabin temperature some other way.


HTH

Roger

[mathewst]

You sure about that Roger.
I think the sampler fan will be there in the middle of climate control panel (two small line openings).

[Andy H]

Is it actually a fan?

I thought I saw reference on these boards to a connection to the vacuum pipes being used to pull air through the cabin sensor.