1987 Ford Fiesta L

Thanks kevins

Well that leaves me to believe the head gasket has gone then.

Oh dear…

It’s a 1.1L if that helps.

I can’t see anything really obvious going on here.

I am pretty confident now that the fluid that was dumped was from the cooling system.

It was all very sudden and unexpected. Had just come back from a 10 mile round trip, reversed onto the driveway. Stopped on the driveway for 30 seconds while running and then it was like a flood.

Turned car off immediately and inspected but other than it looking like it had come from drivers side it was unclear where on earth it had come from.

The fluid was dark, viscous and had a chemical smell to it. On reflection this must be coolant.

I would say that other than the dark colour the evidence of oil is very low. It certainly didn’t leave any multi coloured patches and has dried away in the sun leaving some staining.

Today I have taken off the cooling system hoses, expansion tank and radiator. All of which were thick with deposit and very dirty.

These are all now running clear and will pop back on the car to cycle through before another flush.

If it is from the cooling system and it is going to happen again then I should be able to see quite clearly if fresh water is chucked out instead of the mess that came out yesterday.

Not that it will make it any easier to spot.

This is A Ford CVH engine, not yours, but, it shows where to look for the core plugs ...



and this is what core plugs look like





And they are 'sacrificial' i.e they are designed to fail rather than damage the block ..

Thank you.

Today I have cleared out all the hoses until running clear and smooth.

All reassembled and run for 15 mins to get to operating temperature.

I am now thinking that this is an overheating problem as suggested.

Heater working so I assume this confirms the thermostat is working okay.

Fan did not kick in, temperature rose to about 2/3 before I switched it off as I thought fan should have started working by this point.

Next test is to take the fan out and see if I can get it to run.

Fuses checked already and looked fine.

I did notice that there is a pinhole fracture in the part below. Can anyone tell me what this is so I can replace.

It’s part of the cooling system and is bolted onto the front of the engine (front being the side that faces out towards headlights)

Any advice on the steps to troubleshoot a radiator fan?

I assume there is (after fuse) a sensor and motor to check?

Can I just extend a wire from jump leads to the plug connection on the fan to see if it turns on?

How would you check the sensor works?

There is a temp sensor somewhere, possibly 2!
My Astra has one for the temp gauge and one for the fan.

Don’t know where the fan thermostat switch is, but google suggests it looks like this



From the looks of that, when temp rises it shorts and power goes to the fan, so you could link the wires together to check wiring etc, then either remove the switch and check with boiling water or let it get hotter.

The other sensor probably only has 1 wire, and if shorted the gauge will go right up.


And depending where the sensors are, if there is an airlock then instead of the sensor being submerged in hot water there would be air in a pocket, so yeah it’s possible that is part of the problem

Thanks both. Great advice.

I now know where the sensor is, I have been told to bridge test it to check the circuit.

How do I check the thermostat is operating?

Not my finest hour there, just thought about what I did and I had bridged the sensor not the circuit. Which clearly would do nothing.

Instead I have now bridged the actual circuit and the fan spring into life.

So…up to temp test next to see if the fan ever kicks in.

Is there a test for the sensor should the fan not kick in?