car over heating

[tobeloy]

My car has decided to start overheating tonight ****,
I have checked all the hoses and also the coolant level is fine and topped up and not leaking, also the radiatior and cap are not damaged and nor is the belt snapped , I can only narrow it down to the thermostat, water pump or head gasket however there is no white gunk to suspect this when checking the oil.....I am hoping that its the thermostat which is the cheaper of the three but how much would I expect to pay for a water pump to be fixed??? its a ford escort....

[Jenarry]

its about 40 quid for a water pump, try tapping your thermostat housing with a hammer because they sometimes stick closed.
also check you electric fan see if its cuttin in

[Jenarry]

P.S its only a dagenham dust bin so it will run on knicker elastic and hope so dont worry.

[Her Bruce]

Sometimes the oil won't show contamination for a while, check the top hose by squeezing it (carefull), if it's hard to compresss, the system is probably pressurising by the head gasket leaking.

[JimmyK]

it depends on what year the car was made. is the fan belt used to drive a fan by the radiator, or is it an electric fan?

my mark 1 ran OK without the fan blades fitted, which I tried when a friend said it helped the car warm up in the winter. I put the fan blades back on when a hose burst as I was blasting down the motorway LOL

if its electric, there is a thermostatic switch with 2 wires to it, probably on top of the thermostat housing. they don't often need to cut in in UK weather, so the switch or the fan could have failed.

you can test the fan by shorting the 2 wires together (if you are confident you know what you are doing of course!). some work without the ignition on, some need it switched on.