vulcan1208
Member
- Messages
- 172
I took my 3200 in last week to have the oil pressure sender changed, have a new AC condenser and dryer fitted, a new set of hoses put on ( the ones that can be changed reasonably easily) and a radiator fan resistor fitted. When I got the car back home and let it idle for a while water and steam started coming from near the offside front wheel. I subsequently found out it was the expansion tank overflow and when I took it back they had a look and said it was because the expansion tank pressure relief was faulty and the coolant was boiling due to lack of pressure, I asked why it had not happened before and they said it was probably because they had fitted the new fan radiator resistor, previously it had been bypassed due to unavailability of a replacement. It seems that before the new resistor was fitted the engine was getting near to "boiling temperature" and then cooled very, very quickly due to both fans coming on full blast so the coolant never actually boiled despite the lack of pressure, with the resistor fitted the fans run at a much lower speed so the engine did not cool so rapidly leaving time for the coolant to boil until the fans cooled things down. I must admit I did not leave the engine to run to see if the expansion overflow stopped once the fans did their job but does the explanation make sense ? All in all though I am very pleased, all of the work mentioned cost £360 +VAT for labour + oil change which is less than I paid for a full service on a family car recently and in comparrison I just looked back at some historical bills from a specialist I used to use and I never had one bill for less that £400 and that was about 5 years ago, I am in no way knocking specialists but on the past 3 vists this garage has had a 4200, QP and 2 new Ghiblis in for engine work all of which has been completed satisfactorily so, depending on availability, there are other options, after all as the mechanic said to me "its a car with an internal combustion engine, they all work the same way you know"