As well as the temperature issue, the engine seems to start struggling, stuttering/jerking a little when I am pulling away from idle or accelerating (particularly in low gears) after I have been driving for about 20-25mins, although varies depending on how hot of a day it is so I assume this relates to overheating? The motion is similar to that when you're close to stalling but not quite as bad yet. A colleague has suggested that it could be head gasket related, however this was previously ruled out by a mechanic (and I have hoped and prayed that it isn't as I don't want it to conk out entirely one day on my way to work/home). Any advice would be greatly appreciated as I am desperately trying to keep the car going until Sept/Oct when I will be looking to replace it altogether. renewed on my diesel car last year and found the reservoir empty when I got home - the techy just hadn't run the engine enough for the thermostat to open fully. I suppose you could “tune” it with a blanking plate with a hole in it, to provide less but still some restriction. Note that I’m assuming a “classic” mechanical thermostat here. If its something more modern, perhaps controlled via satellite downlink from a CIA Cray Supercomputer at Langley, this may not be possible.)

I like the idea of a physical test because I might be able to lash one up, and I doubt I'd be able to get the chemical kit here. It'll only do that if it leaks coolant into the combustion chamber, or blows its coolant out / overheats during testing. I've had 2 or 3 serious overheating incidents due to failed repairs on the fan control circuit, so I'm expecting a head gasket failure. Roll up or remove loose clothing, and keep your arms away from the cooling fan(s). Fans can turn on automatically, even when the engine is off.You can of course improve your personal cooling a bit with various supplementary fan and evaporative solutions. Look up “swamp cooler” if interested, though I doubt you want to get quite that elaborate. The most obvious valid reason for replacing a water pump would be an overheating incident due to actual or suspected water pump failure .

I'd assume that'd be the chemical test for CO2, because I'd assume its commoner, but "some tests" isn't a specific description. Perfect. Thanks for the advise. Have just been outside and managed to pull the little git straight out with a pair of long nose pliers as you say 👍. Can't believe how tight it was but so happy to of got it sorted. Thanks again 👍 Water line is just below min too so I better get it filled (I suspect that when I have been taking it in for it's oil change, they havent been topping up the water as they can't get it off! unclip the two upper hoses by hand, unclip tank from the holding plates, drain in jar through the openings where you unclipped the houses, use the pliers to unclamp the main hose, pull the tank away from the hose. Install the new tank. Agree with the screw into it, if you used a really sharp self tapper, you might get away without drilling a pilot hole and dropping bits of metal into the tank.Going by the radiator cap pressure in the cooling system is likely to be lower than oil pressure, so you might not get much coolant going the other way, plus coolant in the oil will probably be less visible, initially at least. The Internyet has many instances of cars that are difficult, for which the pro fix is a vacuum pump. The vid link (a Jeep Liberty IIRC) I give above is just one example. Hi Buffalo and welcome to the Ford Owners Club - This might sound like a daft question but how do you know its leaking ? I suppose I could mist water into the air intake to slightly reduce the risk but there's a bit too much happening as it is. Sorted, thanks for the hints chaps. Put a screw through the side and got some mole grips on it, came out after a few twists to loosen the seal. Crap design.

You can sometimes score extra cooling using the aircon fan (I ran my Sierra using the aircon fan only for a while) but I assume if you had one you would already be using it Or take a brave pill, remove the top half of the top, then start the car and let expansion increase the pressure inside the tank. It could not be worse than removing an unwanted shed / starting fires with petrol / any other PH method of bodily harm!If you need to repair your car’s air conditioning, we have all the parts you could want, including accumulators, actuators and compressors. Its not really a compression tester as the term is usually used. Its testing for radiator pressurisation, with a FSD of 5 psi, so it'd be more sensitive to damage than a compression test, but perhaps still not sensitive enough. With the engine cold, I first loosened the cap as much as possible(almost one turn). Then I let it sit in that position for one minute. The I tried to loosen it some more(almost a quarter of a turn). I repeated this step again after one minute untill I made 2 complete turns. Then it started to loosen after each try. Coolant circulates through the engine and absorbs heat, helping keep the engine at the right operating temperature. IF the water pump is belt driven, I suppose it might be possible to change the pulley to increase the pumping rate, but I doubt it would be worth the trouble.