Tee-Dogg Posted June 1, 2014 Share Posted June 1, 2014 Hi guys just wanted to ask a quick question about my temp gauge. I noticed then when I put my foot down on a motorway my temp gauge goes about 3 quarters of the way up. Then if I enter a town or am just doing 30 mph for example it goes back down to around just under half. I have a mondeo mk3 tdci. Just wondered if this is anything to worry about. All the oils and fluids seem fine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeebowhite Posted June 1, 2014 Share Posted June 1, 2014 See if its based on revs or speed, so keep the revs high for a bit and see if that makes a difference? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tee-Dogg Posted June 1, 2014 Author Share Posted June 1, 2014 Think it is revs to be honest, gotta admit I was doing about 80mph lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich88hall Posted June 1, 2014 Share Posted June 1, 2014 I take it the needle stayed out of the red? Sounds like it's just a case of engine working harder. At 80mph the turbo would be continually spooling up creating more heat and energy whereas at 30mph around town the turbo would hardly ever spool up creating less heat and energy Hope that helps Sent from my iPhone using Ford OC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tee-Dogg Posted June 1, 2014 Author Share Posted June 1, 2014 Yeah I hope so, I didn't have long enough to see if the temp would have dropped after remaining at a constant speed as the duel carriageway I was on isn't very long lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FOCA Posted June 1, 2014 Share Posted June 1, 2014 I take it the needle stayed out of the red? Sounds like it's just a case of engine working harder. At 80mph the turbo would be continually spooling up creating more heat and energy whereas at 30mph around town the turbo would hardly ever spool up creating less heat and energy Hope that helps Sent from my iPhone using Ford OC Your close but its the engine itself that gets hotter under greater load, the turbo is not water-cooled so does not heat up the sngine coolant directly - but the engine is/ does Hi guys just wanted to ask a quick question about my temp gauge. I noticed then when I put my foot down on a motorway my temp gauge goes about 3 quarters of the way up. Then if I enter a town or am just doing 30 mph for example it goes back down to around just under half. I have a mondeo mk3 tdci. Just wondered if this is anything to worry about. All the oils and fluids seem fine This is quite normal for a (Mondeo) Mk3 diesel - though 3/4 seems a bit high Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mixmasterlooney Posted June 1, 2014 Share Posted June 1, 2014 Maybe you could do with a coolant change. Coolant looses its ability to handle heat over time it isn't expensive to have the system flushed with new coolant Sent from my GT-I9300 using Ford OC mobile app Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tee-Dogg Posted June 2, 2014 Author Share Posted June 2, 2014 I only had a service about a month ago I don't know whether they flush the system out or not. Think I'll stop worrying about it for now. It if starts overheating then I'll bare all your information in mind thanks :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOF Posted June 2, 2014 Share Posted June 2, 2014 I only had a service about a month ago I don't know whether they flush the system out or not. I'd bet that they didn't, unless you asked them to, specifically the existing coolant had reached the end of its life (10 years, or a bad reading on a polarimeter) and, usually, they had asked you You'd probably also see it on the materials used (litres of antifreeze) and there would probably be some time down specifically for this. I'm guessing that means that they didn't. It if starts overheating... It is up to 3/4. It is overheating, but not enough to 'spill its guts'. There are various possible causes. For example, the radiator itself could get full of crud (on the outside) and that's cheap or even zero cost to do something about. You look at the level of blocking (probably need to remove a 'bib' in front of the rad to have a good look) and, if it is bad, you pick out the big lumps and squirt water at the rest (pref from the rear) until it cleans up. Probably the likeliest is a thermostat is playing up. If it isn't opening fully, that could explain your problem. If replacing the thermostat, use a decent one. If tap water (plus antifreeze) has been used to top up, enough crud could have been deposited in the waterways to cause a problem. This requires some degree of chemical cleaning, and the antifreeze replacing (don't use calcium (hardness) containing water to replace). The cleaning can cause leaks in weak systems, so you probably don't want to do this, unless absolutely necessary. Your antifreeze is probably getting towards the end of its life (Ford specify 10 years, but that's a maximum). So it wouldn't be a bad idea to replace it anyway. But 'worn out'/overdiluted antifreeze more often causes insufficiently low freezing point in winter, rather than overheating problems, so that doesn't seem to align with your problem. But then, have you had the antifreeze tested (pref with a polarimeter, rather than a specific gravity test)? Suffolk isn't the coldest place in the UK, and last winter wasn't the coldest, so you could have a pretty poor antifreeze solution without knowing anything about it. So, if the antifreeze isn't giving you protection down to a sensible temperature, you'd probably want to do something about that, anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stoney871 Posted June 2, 2014 Share Posted June 2, 2014 Suffolk isn't the coldest place in the UK, and last winter wasn't the coldest, so you could have a pretty poor antifreeze solution without knowing anything about it. So, if the antifreeze isn't giving you protection down to a sensible temperature, you'd probably want to do something about that, anyway. At least in Suffolk you won't have a problem of extra load causing an increase in temperature going up hills ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tee-Dogg Posted June 2, 2014 Author Share Posted June 2, 2014 Haha yeah maybe I'm just being over paranoid. Had lots of trouble with cars lately that every little thing makes me nervous haha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mixmasterlooney Posted June 2, 2014 Share Posted June 2, 2014 Last time I had my car service I had to ask for brake fluid and coolant change since the service only included a top up Sent from my GT-I9300 using Ford OC mobile app Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stef123 Posted June 3, 2014 Share Posted June 3, 2014 My money is on a thermostat not opening fully. What engine do you have? I know the 2.2 tdci has 2 thermostats. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FOCA Posted June 3, 2014 Share Posted June 3, 2014 My money is on a thermostat not opening fully. What engine do you have? I know the 2.2 tdci has 2 thermostats. The 2.0L is the same, the head, block etc is the same too, the 2.2 just has a longer stroke It is possible the second (oil) thermostat is not opening at all When the AC is on it dumps a lot of extra heat in front of the radiator + if its a hot day..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grogee Posted June 4, 2014 Share Posted June 4, 2014 It might be thermostat... but here's my take: I had a similar problem in a Primera I was running, turned out the radiator was full of crud and blocked. Temp was OK in light use but as soon as load increased (eg high speed up hill etc) the temperature started to rise. I tried reverse flushing the rad but it was too far gone so eventually I had to fit a new rad. After that the temp gauge was rock solid (well it was until it decided to stop working completely). First thing to try is unblocking the matrix of crud and dead flies etc, maybe use Gunk to help with this. If no improvement, reverse flush the rad to get the crud out. You'll need some coolant to replace what comes out when you disconnect hoses, but it's a good opportunity to change coolant anyway. Normally the direction of flow is from top hose through to bottom hose, so connect a hosepipe and run it from bottom hose (you'll probably need to remove rad to do this). Doesn't hurt to run water through the block too. Make sure heater is set to full so this part of the circuit is open. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tee-Dogg Posted June 4, 2014 Author Share Posted June 4, 2014 yeah when i put my foot down and travel around 75mph it goes a little above half but then once im cruising along it drops to roughly half again. im guessing this is just because the turbo is kicking in and heating it a little bit above average. its quite a way off the red tho so im thinking its hopefully nothing to sorry myself about Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tee-Dogg Posted June 4, 2014 Author Share Posted June 4, 2014 worry* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FOCA Posted June 5, 2014 Share Posted June 5, 2014 yeah when i put my foot down and travel around 75mph it goes a little above half but then once im cruising along it drops to roughly half again. im guessing this is just because the turbo is kicking in and heating it a little bit above average. its quite a way off the red tho so im thinking its hopefully nothing to sorry myself about Its a small point, and mentioned in a previous post of mine but important to others reading this and wanting to learn more about engines, etc - Its not the turbo itself that heats your engine up because the turbo does not heat the engine cooling system directly, more power produces more heat but it is the engine itself (combustion) that causes this. The same thing that is happening to your car can also happen to an NA (Naturally Asperated or non-turbo) engine 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tee-Dogg Posted June 5, 2014 Author Share Posted June 5, 2014 ok thankyou for your advice Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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