Any car mechanics out there

That's odd.

Yes, a shedload of 'specialist' car related stuff is way cheaper and more easily available than it was in previous times. Probably cheaper in real terms than 'trade' prices have ever been. I still like my 'expensive' Briitish / German / Swiss / Japanese / American tools though, much acquired because I have a long lingering distaste for main dealer servicing and repairs., they are all, regardless of brand, money grabbing underperforming incompetent lying f*****ts.

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As they say, you need to get out more.

On my last BMW, the heater wouldn't work at all if you'd drained and refilled the coolant, until you followed the bleed procedure with two bleed valves. Once the engine was hot and pressurized. Or you could do that cold with the help of a pressure tester...

True. I've still got tools bought 60 years ago. But would say the difference between posh makes and say those from Lidl is nothing like as marked as a few years ago. When cheap tools were badly made from poor materials.

Don't hold back. ;-) My experience too.

OK, so my car first went into production in the late 1980s - but it's got special tubes for bleeding. Comes of having the engine up the back and the rad up the front. I doubt it's the only mid-engined car with special bleed arrangements.

Andy

So update on my situation. The car is now overheating all the time and no amount of revving helps. Looks like the thermostat is gone as top rad hose gets very hot and the bottom cold. Have ordered one so hopefully it will arrive tomorrow for fitting. Apparently there is an o ring sealing the plastic housing to the block so I may be lucky and this was the source of the leak too.

I was thinking I might as well replace th coolant and flush the rad with a hose. Is this a good idea? Also... Looks like I need to use some special stuff rather than good old water and antifreeze. Is this necessary? This will be a second car (about to buy a new one) that largely sits on the drive.

Water pump mate.

Need a water pump to make the water go that the thermostat stops.

If it is easily accessible simply remove te stat altogether to test..

? Have ordered one so

IF you have no circulation, the water in the cylinder head will boil and blow the pressure relilef system this losing coolant.

That is not a leak. It is protecting the hoses from rupturing

Cleaning out rads and replacing hoses is a good idea but PLEASE simply check that water pump.

IME they are slightly moire likely to go than a thermostat.

Once you have repaced that and te sta and te hoses and flushed the rad that's it. Cooling system 100% up to speed.

Yeah will take a look whilst I am at it. I believe the water pump was changed a while ago but having said that I seem to remember it is plastic inside so anything could have happened. Ah well fun for the weekend.

The usual thing is a sheared impeller. Shaft goes round impeller does not.

a bit of dirt in the water can get stuck and cause that. So flush all ..

Ah sorry I thought I had posted an update.

I have a gadget that reads the ECU for the car and sends the info to an app on my phone. Luckily just before I went to remove the thermostat I decided to check for any error codes. I noticed that the temp reading from the ECU matched roughly what I would except (slower increase and then sit around 90 mark) whereas the guage was reading over heat.

Turns out the issue was the coolant temperature sensor. Looks like it is this that triggers the thermostat to open electronically and it wasn't. Changed the sensor and all well.

It has been on a few journeys now and seems fine however on 1 trip I was in very heavy hardly moving traffic for 30 mins and it overheated - properly this time with steam and everything. The radiator fans did not activate so now need to investigate that. Otherwise it has been fine. Even got rid of the engine error code saying that it is using too much fuel :)

Thanks

Lee.

I'd be inclined to check every connector in the chain, and clean and repack with silicone grease if needed. Sounds like you have more than one fault, and connectors are always the first suspect, given sensor circuits work on tiny currents. (a coolant sensor might vary from a few hundred to a few thousand ohms with temperature)

What do you mean by repack with silicone grease?

Most car connectors these days use contact grease to help prevent corrosion of the terminals. Just cleaning can be a short term cure.

If you bleed it hot aren't you drawing a partial vacuum as it cools down, potentially sucking gas in.

From where is the next bit! Hoses anywhere, head gasket er......

Let "air" out, allow to cool, top up maybe?

Do you ever top it up?

Belay that, just re-read you do.

The sealed header tank you mean?

How did you get on?