overheating

[robroy]

Hey guys
I am new to the site and from what i have read have found some things very interesting. However I have a question that i cant seem to find an answer too. I have 2003 Q45. I have recently moved from a smaller city with flowing traffic to a larger city with gridlock traffic. Since this move i have been experiencing an issue with my Q overheating when sitting in traffic. When the vehicle is at constant move or gas is given there doesnt seem to be a problem, but when sitting at lights, or traffic it will begin to oveheat. Last october i had the radiator replaced and thermostat replaced does anyone know what the problem may be? Also.. when i hit the climate control in the car it also refuses to work suggestions on this would be nice also..

[GSUjinih]

Have you checked to see if your fans are working?

[Skibane]

Have you checked to see if your fans are working?

Yep, this should be your first step.

The electric fans turn on automatically whenever the engine coolant gets into the "really warm" range, so they should be running whenever the engine is on the verge of overheating:



Also, the belt-driven fan should be really roaring at any engine speed above idle whenever the engine is on the verge of overheating. When the engine is hot, the fan clutch makes a solid mechanical lock-up between the fan and water pump pulley, so the fan spins at full speed - and makes a lot of noise.

If you don't hear some serious roaring, you should suspect that your fan clutch is worn out. To test it, grasp one of the fan blades (with the engine shut off!) and attempt to spin it by hand. When the engine is hot, the blades should be hard to spin by hand. If you can spin the blade for more than a fraction of a revolution, the fan clutch isn't doing it's job, and probably needs to be replaced.

[elwesso]

F50 doesn't have a mechanical fan only electrical. So if your fan isn't coming on, I'd check it by jumping the relay to see if it comes on, if it doesn't then you've got a bad fan. If it does come on, you might have a bad switch.

If your water pump was bad you'd most likely see signs of coolant leaking.

[qship96]

Be sure the monkey did not use 100% coolant when they did the radiator replacement,as it is much less efficient at cooling than a 50/50 mix with distilled water.

[Q451990]

The 02 - 04 has the unusual hydraulic pump driven fan from what I can gather from the FSM. 05-06 got all electric fans.

Be sure to check out section CO in the FSM, available at www.nicoclub.com/FSM/

Heath