Coolant Warning

[Deleted member 134751]

It does sound like a fan or sensor problem with the temp. rising before you even have the engine running.

When you say it's going to "MB" I assume that will be Grangemouth so it's actually Arnold Clark, you know my opinion.
Just remember although they will look FOC, their labour rates are likely to be around £120+VAT as opposed to a good Indy at half of that.

Thanks. Yes - Grangemouth - for lack of an alternative as close as they are to me.

Do you think it's ok to drive the car a longer distance to an indy? I am really concerned about causing serious engine damage....

 

[Deleted member 134751]

The coolant system on these engines is far from simple. see page 36 onwards. Both thermostat and switchable water pump are known to give trouble- perhaps your water pump is not switching on?
http://autocats.ws/manual/sdmedia/mediadb/mb_Acrobat/einf/204/einf_br204_cdi_OM651__en.pdf

That's way too complex for me!

 

[allenhh]

That's way too complex for me!

Does the water in the coolant tank get hot?

 

[Deleted member 134751]

Just had it fixed at the local main dealer - £90 to replace the coolant temperature sensor. Hopefully this might help someone else in the future!

Seems a bit cheeky that they initially wanted £120 just to diagnose the issue because it took them about 60 minutes to identify and fix the problem (presumably they just plugged it in and could tell what the problem was right away).

Does the water in the coolant tank get hot?

Did not check that but I did open the bonnet and there wasn't any obvious heat coming from anything as far as I could tell. As per the above, probably not as it was a faulty sensor.

I've got an Icarsoft in Stirling if you want to stick it on it.

Thanks again for your offer - out of interest, would the Icarsoft have told me it was a faulty coolant temperature sensor? I've been considering buying one as it doesn't seem that expensive in the long run!

And thanks to everyone else who tried to help.

 

[ernie]

When you say it's going to "MB" I assume that will be Grangemouth so it's actually Arnold Clark, you know my opinion.

I use Grangemouth for all my servicing and find them very helpful. My experience is that they have tried hard to shrug off the old AC image since they took over the franchise from John R Weir and will negotiate on price for a regular customer to the point where it wasn't worth the risk of having rear brake pads done elsewhere. I will also say that my experiences with the dealerships either side of Grangemouth have been vastly different.

Ernie

ps: I'm not connected to the Grangemouth organisation in any way!

 

[Deleted member 134751]

I use Grangemouth for all my servicing and find them very helpful.

All I can say is that I've had them change tyres for me twice, and on both occasions, I got dashboard warning lights literally whilst driving home, which both turned out to be failed sensors that were costly to replace.

An extraordinary coincidence...

 

[MBV6]

Does the water in the coolant tank get hot?

Sorry to resurrect a 2006 old post but I'm having the same issue with my W211 2009 320cdi this morning on way to work....touching the engine and expansion tank I thought no way it's overheating I was able to open the lid off expansion tank and even put my finger in it was lukewarm at best and at the right level.