Overheat on hill under load

[[email protected]]

I'm still waiting for the radiator.
Is it a hard task to replace the radiator? I have a mate that's willing to help. Any step by steps?

Hey Shane_1

It is a not a difficult job, drain radiator, undo hoses and transmission cooler on an auto, you have to unbolt the fan off the pulley wiggle the fan shroud up and out and then the radiator but if you are moderately mechanical you wont have a problem. Plenty of removal and install vids on youtube, and I am sure the process is pretty standard on any four wheel drive ute if you can find a D40 vid.

 

[shane_1]

Hey Shane_1

It is a not a difficult job, drain radiator, undo hoses and transmission cooler on an auto, you have to unbolt the fan off the pulley wiggle the fan shroud up and out and then the radiator but if you are moderately mechanical you wont have a problem. Plenty of removal and install vids on youtube, and I am sure the process is pretty standard on any four wheel drive ute if you can find a D40 vid.

Thanks, but I decided to hand it over to my local mechanic. He's a good guy and charges properly. Radiator arrived couple of days ago. Will post the results once I do a test run "up a big hill".

 

[shane_1]

Good news, it was the radiator. I can now pull our van, up any hill, in almost any gear, at any revs and any speed, and that temperature gauge behaves like it's glued into place ... no movement.

 

[shane_1]

Here is a couple of pics of the finished product and one I found of the work in progress.

I did my bypass too, and i'll post some pics of my job. I just removed the entire plastic piece, cut the pipe, attached an elbow & straight heater hose pipe. Seems to be nice n sealed.

 

[shane_1]

Here is a couple of pics of the finished product and one I found of the work in progress.

Finally got my pics onto the PC of my bypass of that valve. I left the pipe coming out of the firewall, and attached an elbow rubber pipe to it, then cut the aluminium pipe off and attached the rubber pipe. Worked a dream, and didn't need to access that stupid clamp hard up against the firewall.
Thanks for your tip.

 

[[email protected]]

Problem sounds the same, however, there is a check you can go thru to confirm the electric fan comes on, and i've done that check, and yes, it powers up fine. I found that process in these forums somewhere. I vaguely remember having to click some button 10 times (the button that switches the interior light on on the drivers side door), then a certain process of things going on and off kicks in.

Guess I've gotta wait for my radiator ... and it be interesting if your issue is fixed with your new radiator. Have you tested on a climb since installing radiator?

Hey Shane 1 et al.

Regarding your question about whether I put the replacement items to the test. Took off for an outback trip to Charleville over the Easter school holidays in April. I went up the Toowoomba by pass, exactly the same circumstances as when I had an overheat last year. This time the gauge did not move at all. In other words there was no difference going up the range as there was the previous 120 km from Brisbane sitting at highway speed. The engine was working harder on the climb than those highway k's but no noticeable difference by the gauge. So my overheat issue was well and truly solved. The radiator replacement probably did the trick, and the installation of the electric fan was probably very much secondary.

 

[shane_1]

Hey Shane 1 et al.

Regarding your question about whether I put the replacement items to the test. Took off for an outback trip to Charleville over the Easter school holidays in April. I went up the Toowoomba by pass, exactly the same circumstances as when I had an overheat last year. This time the gauge did not move at all. In other words there was no difference going up the range as there was the previous 120 km from Brisbane sitting at highway speed. The engine was working harder on the climb than those highway k's but no noticeable difference by the gauge. So my overheat issue was well and truly solved. The radiator replacement probably did the trick, and the installation of the electric fan was probably very much secondary.

Excellent to hear, it's such a relief isn't it. Yes to the radiator change, as per solved my issue too. We're yet to take off on a decent trip since, only done some local testing, so looking forward to getting up into the Great Dividing Range and freezing our balls off overnight.

 

[dennisjh69]

R

Hi all, (2008 D40 2.5l) i've been slowly diagnosing my issue of overheating when climbing a long hill towing a 1200kg pop top caravan.
The ute stays cool under all other circumstances, except hill climb with a load.

Approaching hill at 100km/hr in 6th gear, as she slows down, i drop into 5th (2100rpm at 80-85km/h), and if the revs drop anymore the temp gauge rises instantly and continues to climb, right up to the top max operating temp line. Until i crest the hill and cruise down, then it cools down fast.

I've played around dropping it down to 4th gear, 2800-3000rpm at 80ks, 3rd gear etc, leaving it in 5th ... but once that temp gauge starts rising, nothing gets it to cool down until cresting the hill, or stopping.

An entire trip from East Gippsland to Canberra recently was driving by the temp gauge. Up down, up down. Outside Air temp doesn't seem to make it worse or better.

I lose no coolant at all, except the first time it happened, i let the temp go slightly over the max recommended, and coolant spewed into the wheel well from the little outlet pipe on the plastic reservoir. The head is still in one piece.

So far i've replaced:
1. thermostat - old one was crappy, and it improved it slightly.
2. Viscus hub fan - replaced it for the hell of it, and again, it seemed to improve it slightly (delayed temp rising so fast).
3. Radiator cap on the plastic reservoir with the pressure type cap.

Today, i decided to re-bleed the coolant system. Found the little bleeder rubber cap, and attempted to get it off via opening the clamp. It broke the inside tube coming off the main plastic housing, so now I just have a "stub" of plastic and unable to put the cap back on. Gonna have to drive a screw or something in there to seal it temporarily, whilst I find a new one. When I did remove the cap, and have both radiator caps off, coolant visibly came out, so I assume there were no air pockets in the coolant system (heater on etc).

Any tips on getting new parts re the bleeder assembly?

And any other tips on wtf is going on.

The only thing i think of left, is the radiator ... a mate looked at it and said "it's fine" ... but not sure how he calculated that statement. Nothing is blocking the airflow, re spotties etc. Just the little air con radiator sitting right in front, i assume.

Egardless of what old mate says, get your radiator checked. Even replace it, they're not expensive, and will stand you in good stead for a few years.

 

[shane_1]

R

Egardless of what old mate says, get your radiator checked. Even replace it, they're not expensive, and will stand you in good stead for a few years.

Yep already done. New radiator fixed it. Just did a 5000km tour towing our van, and that temp gauge never moved a micromillimetre from normal.

 

[user 49350]

Yep same here. My temps were dangerously, well insanely high towing up hills (120+ DegC) and 100 odd just driving unloaded along the road at 100KPH. Reading forums all sorts of theory's from pumps spinning on shaft to faulty temp sensors to stuck thermostats. But in the end one very blocked rad. I pulled the top/bottom tanks off and proved 75% of the tubes were full of crud. Good flush, new rad and never gets to 100 up hill and 88-90 on the flat at 100KPH unloaded.

 

[user 49350]

Oh and FYI, comparing to temp readout on OBD display, the D40 temp guage on the console does not budge up past "normal" (for me roughly 4 o'clock position) until temp exceeds 105 DegC then it immediately goes above horizontal (somewhere between 2 and 3 o'clock).
So about 80 to 105 DegC is "normal" on the gauge.

 

[Jimjet61]

Hi all, (2008 D40 2.5l) i've been slowly diagnosing my issue of overheating when climbing a long hill towing a 1200kg pop top caravan.
The ute stays cool under all other circumstances, except hill climb with a load.

Approaching hill at 100km/hr in 6th gear, as she slows down, i drop into 5th (2100rpm at 80-85km/h), and if the revs drop anymore the temp gauge rises instantly and continues to climb, right up to the top max operating temp line. Until i crest the hill and cruise down, then it cools down fast.

I've played around dropping it down to 4th gear, 2800-3000rpm at 80ks, 3rd gear etc, leaving it in 5th ... but once that temp gauge starts rising, nothing gets it to cool down until cresting the hill, or stopping.

An entire trip from East Gippsland to Canberra recently was driving by the temp gauge. Up down, up down. Outside Air temp doesn't seem to make it worse or better.

I lose no coolant at all, except the first time it happened, i let the temp go slightly over the max recommended, and coolant spewed into the wheel well from the little outlet pipe on the plastic reservoir. The head is still in one piece.

So far i've replaced:
1. thermostat - old one was crappy, and it improved it slightly.
2. Viscus hub fan - replaced it for the hell of it, and again, it seemed to improve it slightly (delayed temp rising so fast).
3. Radiator cap on the plastic reservoir with the pressure type cap.

Today, i decided to re-bleed the coolant system. Found the little bleeder rubber cap, and attempted to get it off via opening the clamp. It broke the inside tube coming off the main plastic housing, so now I just have a "stub" of plastic and unable to put the cap back on. Gonna have to drive a screw or something in there to seal it temporarily, whilst I find a new one. When I did remove the cap, and have both radiator caps off, coolant visibly came out, so I assume there were no air pockets in the coolant system (heater on etc).

Any tips on getting new parts re the bleeder assembly?

And any other tips on wtf is going on.

The only thing i think of left, is the radiator ... a mate looked at it and said "it's fine" ... but not sure how he calculated that statement. Nothing is blocking the airflow, re spotties etc. Just the little air con radiator sitting right in front, i assume.

I had exactly the same symptoms, owner I purchased from had removed the thermostat, so tried all the simple things first, thermostat, replaced viscous fan oil, flushed radiator, all seemed to improve the temp until I towed the Caravan, recently purchased a new radiator, and while replacing thought I would check the water pump, (see pic) it also had a strange noise when under load and getting hot, I'm now thinking it was the pump cavitating as centrifugal pumps are at their lowest load when the thermostat is closed, also found that using sports mode while towing improved the temps, until the inevitable long or steep hill. The pump was obviously still pumping, just not very efficiently, and could have failed completely at anytime. Have ordered a new water pump, tried Repco but they want over $500, so have settled on an Aisin replacement, $160, will let you know how it goes with new pump and radiator. Oh, and by the way, it's a prick of a job, as like all newer cars, it's practically stripping half the engine just to get to the pump, but a good opportunity to check idler pulleys etc.
Pump should look like below.

 

[Jimjet61]

Had the same symptoms when towing caravan, replaced thermostat, radiator, viscous fan, water pump, had checked by an auto sparky, who could not find any problems. Purchased a bidirectional diagnostic tool that showed outputs like fan speed and coupling % which proved that fan was failing to change speed even when commanded, had checked all fuses, or so I thought, found another fuse box for the PCM, see picture, blown fuse. Replaced, system now operating correctly The fuse box is on the passenger side next to the fuse and relay box, fiddly to get out.

 

[Jimjet61]

Just in case there's anyone with a Spanish built STX with the V6 Diesel, I was having the same symptoms, replaced thermostat, water pump, radiator, electric/viscous fan hub assembly, Spanish model doesn't have an electric fan, had checked all fuses, and even had an auto sparky check, still no improvement, purchased a bi-directional diagnostic tool that showed the control input circuit was fine but the output did not seem to speed the fan up even when commanded, finally stumbled upon a blown fuse in the PCM or BCM? that is located on passenger side between fuse/relay block and firewall (see attachment) the system now works correctly, and will now spin the fan up to 1000rpm's even at idle if required. Air Conditioning performance has also improved greatly. Hope this helps someone.

 

[Old.Tony]

That looks like the IPDM/ER (Intelligent Power Distribution Module/Engine Room). Even the 4cyl cars have it, located near the ABS unit. It's one of 4 locations these cars have fuses:

1) Inside the cabin beside the glovebox compartment
2) IPDM/ER
3) A black covered rectangular box near and above the IPDM/ER
4) Another rectangular box sort-of between the battery and the brake booster.