hi all ,quick post which I hope will help people on here if they have similar problems.
I tow a caravan with my grand voyager , until recently has been fine. I noticed that when I take the engine revs over 2500rpm the temp gauge rose steadily up till a point under 3/4 ,as soon as I backed off the power the engine temp went back to just about half way.
when I first bought the car last December ,it had loads of residue and scum in the cooling system header tank,i drained and flushed this out and added some new oat antifreeze and all seem well,this was done in winter.
At the weekend I started to do some checking of the cooling system
I checked all the pipe work and sure enough the top rad hose was hot and the bottom was warm ,not hot. Its very difficult/impossible to get your hand on the rad to check for cold spot etc.
Took the plunge got a brand new nissens rad ,fitted it took about 2.5 to 3 hrs ,very tricky to ease it out of the way of the intercooler and air con condenser, put everything back together and refilled the cooling sys again with water and wynns flush ,ran for 30 mins then drained the system and refilled with oat antifreeze and water .
I hooked the caravan on and went for a run ,hey presto sorted gauge no sits at the segment under halfway no matter how hard you rev the engine .Hope this helps anyone with similar probs ,when you looked at the old radiator it looked in pristine nick ,but obviously was blocked with sludge /silt.
cheers richard

 

These aluminium radiators WILL plug-up due to the ally turning to aluminium oxide which is extremely hard (it's used in abrasive papers). This happens if the antifreeze is not changed on time. It won't flush as the oxide is well stuck to the base metal.
Moral -- change the antifreeze religiously!!

Leedsman.
n.b. Reading this? So have you checked your antifreeze?

 

I changed the antifreeze last December when I first got the car ,but noted the contamination in the expansion tank ,so obviously the damage /blockage had already occurred.
I wonder if the quality of the antifreeze used from new by Chrysler is poor as most other modern vehicles use the oat antifreeze and do not suffer as bad as these do?
I managed to haggle my local parts factor and got a nissens radiator for £144.26 inc vat ,didn't price it up at Chrysler but I bet it would be double!!
cheers richard

 

Not a bad price there for the coolant rad. Most here use the "Comma" HOAT antifreeze, they call it "Go-5". It's £20 to £25 per container, but shop around.
BTW., the giveaway for a bad rad. is twofold. It's very hard to blow through it, and secondly, if you peep along the horizontal length of the rad., a bad one has a very slight curve. This is where the oxide formation has stressed the core on one side. Acknowlegements to Northern Radiator guy in Leeds for this one.

Leedsman.

 

Hi


can you tell me how did you bleed the cooling system after flushed the water and refill. as mine 2.8crd I changed the water pump and changed the water but now is overheating.


thanks for answering

 

As of any car look at the engine, look for the highest coolant hose or pipework as if possible this is where to bled out the air. If your 2.8crd is same as my 2.5crd bled off the air at the short green transfer hose at back of the engine. Loosen off one hose clip and push in a thin round blunt rod and when coolant escapes retighten. This seems to be highest hose.

 

REM to put the heat on full to burp the heater matrix, the expansion bottle on my 2.8 is high so if you remove the expansion bottle cap and run a fast idle when the RAD fans cut in you are burped. Screw the expansion bottle cap on and check fluid levels hot or cold again.