Hot Rav Engine?

[john1810]

First post. Recently I privately purchased the wife a 1997 RAV4 5 door auto with 55,000 miles on the clock for about £5.5k. It is the stax edition with aircon and all the extras and a fine car it is too. It came with full Toyota service history, MOTs etc and everything seemed in proper order - but was only test driven briefly. Previous owner indicated that they had never had any problems and paper work confirms this. Motivation was perceived reliability of the car and the need to do occasional 400 mile round trips with some light off road driving.

However within a few weeks we noticed that the engine temperature gauge was variating quite a bit and going into the red, particularly in stop start traffic, but the car runs well despite this - It has to date only been on short journeys. So we took it to the local non-Toyota mechanic who had a quick look and said he thought it may be a blown relay as the radiator fans were not kicking in. As a precaution and to keep the car on the road temporarily, he put the radiator fans on permanent until a new relay arrived. However the gauge continued to run up into the red, particularly when stationary and we have been forced to extract heat from the engine compartment by putting the cabin heater blower on max/full and engine temp now OK but still fluctuates a bit. The new relay arrived and didn’t make any difference so mechanic suggested that now the reason why the radiator fans were not working was due to broken temperature fan switch. However i'm under the impression that the engine should not be running hot at all. Not sure if the mechanic is too clued up on the car or is playing us around. But there is no sign of overheating on the engine, and as yet no boiling over and pipe pressure is OK, but only been driven on short journeys.

As we’re mechanically challenged does anyone have any idea what this could be, or experience in the area as I don’t particularly want to go down the main Toyota repair route or is this inevitable?

Do Rav mk1 2.0l petrol engines (with aircon) run hot and when should radiator fans kick in, if needs be?

Can the car be driven on a 400mile round journey in present condition?

Could it be a cracked head / gasket or something serious despite running OK.

Blocked radiator?

Faulty temperature gauge sensor on engine?

Thermostat?

Temperature fan switch?

Anything else?

Your help much appreciated - Thanks

[Mark139]

Mine is a 99 model but same spec and milage, there was a receipt in the car for a new water pump just 9 months ago, while I was getting the brakes checked at a toyota dealer I asked about this and he told me there was a factory recall on about 1000 waterpumps and it was done FOC by dealers even though the warranty was out.

It might not be this but it's worth a check.