306 td running temp

[wiggy]

anyone know what the normal running temp is for xud9te 1.9td engines in early 306's??

[slapathy]

Had my 306 1.9XrTD for 3.5 years now, it has never ever got warm except for last summer when the rad fell apart. Despite having messed about with (classic) cars for 25 years I never thought to change the thermostat! Did this last night, it took about eight minutes and its the best £12.99 (ouch, but only Halfords stay open till 8 round our way) I've spent in a long while. This morning the heater works as it should and the needle sits at exactly 82 degrees on the gauge.
Best bit though is that the wife-generated whining noise which accompanied this fault has completely disappeared......

[wiggy]

thanks for that, i done the same and now it sits at 82 drgrees too but the heater is only luke warm, if i let the car idle for about an hour then it reaches 90 and the heater blows hot. as soon as i drive off again it drops to just above 70 and the heater goes cold. seems like its overcooling ?? is this possible

[504gld]

The heater matrix may be bunged up, have you flushed the system through?

[jakesalter]

Are the carpets damp inside? If so could be time for new matrix..

[504gld]

Going to attempt the a thermostat change on the 504 tomorrow, had a couple of odd things happening over the last couple of weeks from loosing loads of coolant on a long run and lack of defrosting this week. Think my thermostat is sticking. On a run up to Maidenhead for a committee meeting all was fine. Drove one mile on way back and temp rose to middle of guage, checked coolant all looked ok. Drove then to Salisbury and when stopped it went up, then down, real odd. Had to stop and fill up the coolant like Id had a leek. Been fine ever since. Bunged a bottle off rad weld in to be sure last weekend when I remembered. Done a 120 mile round trip with quite hard driving not used any coolant, so dont think the head gasket went. Its started and run perfectly in the cold weather so cant be down on compression through a gasket problem, and there is no mayo or water in the oil. Umm... back to thermostat sticking I think. Halfrauds had one on the shelf, well under Ford Sierra 2.3D and LDV van but its the right one so will pop it in and see what happens.

[504gld]

Well the stat was totally different size (thanks Haynes for not pointing out the two sizes yet the two types of installation). Anyway took to the old method of saucepan, multimeter set on temperature and watched to see what happened, sure enough it worked ok! Put it back in. Had a cup of coffee and went back with new ideas. Found slight seaping around the leak off pipe from the pump to the header so trimmed the end and refitted.

Refilled and restarted and the drive belts decided to slip, the mixure of water and the oil leak made the belts slip so the water pump, fan and vacuum pump were static. Not good, cleaned that up and all ok. Next electrostatic fan..... thats the little s*d. Nowt. Shorted across the rad switch, nothing. Direct feed, nothing.

Unlike modern cars, the 404 / 504 series used a electromagnetic fan. The base of the fan is constantly driven by the drive belt, when the rad switch opens the current click hey presto the fan magnetically clamps to the base and it spins. For the age of the cars design it was fantastic, most cars simply had a fixed drive fan. All modern cars follow 504's method but now use electric fans. I think I will buy a Kenlowe fan unit may be cheaper than a new magnetic!

For the time being I've used an effective method. Black PVC tape around the base and disc to lock it together, holds very well at high revs!