Engine overheated

[witchveil]

Hi

Had my van since January, just had my first tow home due to engine overheating.

Driving down the motorway was fine, within 5 minutes of coming off the temp gauge on the dash swooped to the right, warning light came on and steam came out of the back. Pulled over in a lay-by, engine off and called the recovery people.

A coolant pipe had blown off and coolant was draining out of it....

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The pipe was clipped back on and water/coolant was filled up. Engine left on high revs for a good 10 minutes and it eventually overheated again. We couldn't hear the radiator fan coming on at any point (unless its ultra-silent), so that may be the issue. The technician said it could be the thermostat (which would make sense), but he also said it could be the head gasket (I don't understand his reasoning for this, if anyone could enlighten me?).

Home now and been checking the forum and wiki and it seemed a sensible place to start was to check the radiator temperature sensor, so took the lower grill off and unplugged the electric connector. The wiki said to use a paperclip but as I had one I used my multimeter so I could check the voltage at the same time. One side had voltage, but the fan didn't come on (again, unless its absolutely silent) the other side didn't have a voltage at all....

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To me this suggests the fan/fan motor is bust? But should I be concerned that the second pin didn't have any voltage?

Any help in diagnosing this problem is most welcome. Idiots guide also welcome as I'm not very mechanically minded (also, apologies if this is the wrong section, wasn't sure if I should post this in Electrical or not).


Alice

[Timburrows]

Ih Alice,to check the fan you link the wires in the plug together,depending on the sensor you will have 2 or 3 wires ,1 12 volt and the others will make a the curciut,if you have two other wires 1 is half speed the other is full speed,yes you will hear it running.as for over heating yes it may be the head gasket,when you filled it with water did you bleed the system,wiki explains how,can take quit sometime to get the air out,hot air in the system will expand and could result in overheating and blowing pipes off if radiator cap is faulty,which may be the problem in the first place,