Yeah, so....
I just bought me a 2007 SEAT Alhambra Reference. 2.0 TDI 140 BHP with, I think, the BRT engine code. Seemed nice enough. Usual battle scars as associated with a car of this age. But nothing terribly untoward.
Took it for a test drive, a decent 10 mins or so, but only around town, as it was in the middle of a city.
Anyway, agreed a price, swapped insurance, and off I went.
Around 10 mins or so after leaving town (around 20-30 mins into driving), I noticed the engine temp rising. So I duly pulled into the side, and popped the bonnet for a look.
No milky oil cap or anything (I did check this before purchase). Coolant level looked good. Fan was going full tilt though. Left it 5 mins, temps returned to the centre ground (circa 90 degrees) and started off again.
It was a good 10-15 minutes later, and everything had been fine. By this time I was on a Dual Carriageway, and doing 70 mph. The temps started to rise again. Rinse, repeat. So I decided to continue my journey at 60 mph to see if that made a difference. I had around 35 miles still to travel to get home by this point.
So I got another 15 miles roughly before there was a coolant warning on my dash this time. Temperatures seemed ok, but I thought I had better pull in anyway. So duly did so. The level this time was below the minimum. I slowly opened the cap, and as the cap opened, the usual bubbling and spluttering happened. Some coolant spilled out, and once settled, the level was below the minimum.
Luckily I had just bought 24 bottles of water, so a top up of 500ml of water, the level was good again, re-attached the cap, and set off again. The last 20 miles or so were fine. No increasing temps, no warnings on the dash, but then not above 60 mph either (in all fairness, a lot of the last bit was on normal A roads with a 60 limit).
So, what is likely to cause this? I have read about the cap not sealing correctly, so I'll give SEAT a call tomorrow and order a new one. I also read about a blockage in some of the pipework causing similar issues. But that was on a 1.9 TDI, not my 2.0 TDI. Regardless, I'll see if I can clean out some pipes and stuff too.
But anyone got any other ideas? Any tests I could do? If a clean and new caps don't solve the problem, I'll probably be sticking her in for a pressure test next I'm thinking.
I just bought me a 2007 SEAT Alhambra Reference. 2.0 TDI 140 BHP with, I think, the BRT engine code. Seemed nice enough. Usual battle scars as associated with a car of this age. But nothing terribly untoward.
Took it for a test drive, a decent 10 mins or so, but only around town, as it was in the middle of a city.
Anyway, agreed a price, swapped insurance, and off I went.
Around 10 mins or so after leaving town (around 20-30 mins into driving), I noticed the engine temp rising. So I duly pulled into the side, and popped the bonnet for a look.
No milky oil cap or anything (I did check this before purchase). Coolant level looked good. Fan was going full tilt though. Left it 5 mins, temps returned to the centre ground (circa 90 degrees) and started off again.
It was a good 10-15 minutes later, and everything had been fine. By this time I was on a Dual Carriageway, and doing 70 mph. The temps started to rise again. Rinse, repeat. So I decided to continue my journey at 60 mph to see if that made a difference. I had around 35 miles still to travel to get home by this point.
So I got another 15 miles roughly before there was a coolant warning on my dash this time. Temperatures seemed ok, but I thought I had better pull in anyway. So duly did so. The level this time was below the minimum. I slowly opened the cap, and as the cap opened, the usual bubbling and spluttering happened. Some coolant spilled out, and once settled, the level was below the minimum.
Luckily I had just bought 24 bottles of water, so a top up of 500ml of water, the level was good again, re-attached the cap, and set off again. The last 20 miles or so were fine. No increasing temps, no warnings on the dash, but then not above 60 mph either (in all fairness, a lot of the last bit was on normal A roads with a 60 limit).
So, what is likely to cause this? I have read about the cap not sealing correctly, so I'll give SEAT a call tomorrow and order a new one. I also read about a blockage in some of the pipework causing similar issues. But that was on a 1.9 TDI, not my 2.0 TDI. Regardless, I'll see if I can clean out some pipes and stuff too.
But anyone got any other ideas? Any tests I could do? If a clean and new caps don't solve the problem, I'll probably be sticking her in for a pressure test next I'm thinking.
