Mk1 Mr2 Cooling Problems

December 19, 2004

Hi all. My friend has just bought an 84 mk1 MR2 non turbo.

Its been having over heating issues so he's not been using it so as not to cause head gasket failure.

Originally what was happening was the car was getting red hot, guage suddenly shooting off the scale and the water boiling in the engine bay. The radiatior was stone cold and so were the pipes going in to it.

Today, we changed the thermostat and bled the system using a guide we found on the net. This seemed to work and the car was fine driving about for around an hour and then all of a sudden it went red hot off the scale for about 30 seconds and then dropped back to normal. We presumed this was just some air in the system but about 10 minutes later it happened again, we limped to my sisters about a mile away. When we stopped the coolant in the bay was boiling and the radiator was cold and so were the pipes going in to it.

We left the car for a little while and topped up the coolant and proceeded with caution back to his house (about 18miles). The temperature didnt go above half on the guage all the way back, except for a second and no boiling of coolant. When we got back to his we checked the radiator and it was warm, both pipes going in and out were hot. We left it running an the temp was climbing a bit but not like it had been.

So we're a bit confused. Was there just a bit of air still stuck in the system working its way round or is something else broken :blink: If it was a radiator problem I wouldnt expect both pipes to it being hot. So all I can think is there was still air in the system or the water pump is stuffed.

Please help :help:

thanks

December 20, 2004

Sounds like you're on the right lines re. the air in the system, these cars are a pain in the ***** to get the coolant system bled right.

Either that or there is a physical blockage, did you give the system a good blast with a hose pipe after replacing the thermostat? It may be a good idea to drain the system completely, remove the two pipes just aft of the radiator and give it a good hose through (block off one side at a time to get some decent pressure in there)!

HTH

Chris