V70: Engine Overheating

[green van man]

Originally Posted by Tannaton

I agree with Clan in that the system is very good at monitoring things and letting you know when action is needed, also a message on the dash and a "bong" is much more likely to be noticed by your average driver than a gradual increase in the reading of what is likely the smallest gauge on the cluster.

However... I also agree that to not have a temperature gauge as well is an unnecessary and risky omission as not having it prevents even the slightly experienced among us to diagnose issues from observed patterns and behaviors. Being able to read the gauge would probably help the OP diagnose whether he had an issue with a compromised cooling system (i.e. leaves blocking airflow) or early stages of a head gasket failure, or maybe a thermostat problem.

It is possible to have both - the S40/V50 platform did, and you knew if the heater output dropped slightly whilst the gauge went up a notch (but no warning) you likely had a head gasket issue.

This is the problem though isn't it. People these days are not drivers but car movers.

I have driven for 50 years, I learned on a car designed to use a pint of oil every 300 miles, 8 pints in the sump, 2000 miles and a wrecked engine IF you did not dip the oil regularly. Tappets that needed adjusting every second service and service intervals of 5000 miles. Clean and repack wheel bearings on a regular basis.

These days it's annual service and how many even check tyre pressure unless a warning tells them too. Many would not even know how to open the bonnet let alone what to look at once open.

No wonder there's no temp guage, most would not understand its function so why would a manufacturer go to the expense of fitting one.

Frustrating in the extreme for those of us who are drivers but we are a dieing breed and the car movers don't care.

Paul.

[Tannaton]

Originally Posted by green van man

This is the problem though isn't it. People these days are not drivers but car movers.

I have driven for 50 years, I learned on a car designed to use a pint of oil every 300 miles, 8 pints in the sump, 2000 miles and a wrecked engine IF you did not dip the oil regularly. Tappets that needed adjusting every second service and service intervals of 5000 miles. Clean and repack wheel bearings on a regular basis.

These days it's annual service and how many even check tyre pressure unless a warning tells them too. Many would not even know how to open the bonnet let alone what to look at once open.

No wonder there's no temp guage, most would not understand its function so why would a manufacturer go to the expense of fitting one.

Frustrating in the extreme for those of us who are drivers but we are a dieing breed and the car movers don't care.

Paul.

To a large extent - that's true... in the UK.

Go to South Africa, Canada or America where man people will regularly make car journeys of 8-20 hours, they will habitually be checking the gauges much more, especially in the hotter climates.

And regarding the cost... it's zero I think... on the early P3 V70 platform I'm sure with a DIM software upgrade you could have the temp as a bar graph shown at the same time as the fuel gauge - same also for the dash fitted to base (non Lux) P3 facelift and Mk 2 V40 models with the LCD in the middle of the speedo.

[Clan]

Originally Posted by V70greg

Not wanting to go off subject or trying to be argumentative:

A temp gauge can show steady increase therefore slow down or pull over and wait; or sudden increase, something serious has happened stop immediately; a warning light doesn't give a technically aware driver any indication of what is happening.

I don't see a reason why you cannot have both, for example if there are leaves and stone blocking his radiator like you suggest he may see the normal operating temperature slowly creeping up over time. Instead of just a warning light when it is too late.

This is just a money saving option from Volvo, same as the touch screens which all manufactures are using now, same as spare wheel to space saver to tyre slime.

i've been driving cars with temperature gauges for 47 years , you look at them a lot when new but with volvos they are boringly reliable , heavily damped and don't budge or do anything for 15 - 20 + years .. you never look at them . The built in warnings are not too late they record trends too and wake you up in good time when there is need . It's nothing about cost cutting either , It gives room for other gauges people seem to want according to market surveys . you can easily monitor your temperature with a cheap £5 OBD socket bluetooth transmitter , you can make your own set of gauges on your phone or tablet .👍🏻

[apersson850]

Volvo removed the temp gauge because some people complained about them not being perfectly on the "normal" mark. When they had them, they were lying quite a bit too. In order to reduce the complaints, they programmed the gauge to show exactly "normal" over quite a large range of temperatures, to avoid worrying people who didn't understand why the temperature goes up when you go uphill in high temperatures and goes down when you go downhill in the winter.

The later P3 cars do have a temp gauge, though, provided you got the TFT instrument module.

My car suffered from that the vanes on the condensor, for the AC, collapsed and rotated 90°. Many of them did that, which partly blocked the air flow through the radiator behind the condensor. My car had the fan running when towing a caravan even when it was +10°C outside. Then the condensor started leaking, so I had it replaced. The temperature raise disappeared.

[Clan]

Originally Posted by apersson850

Volvo removed the temp gauge because some people complained about them not being perfectly on the "normal" mark. When they had them, they were lying quite a bit too. In order to reduce the complaints, they programmed the gauge to show exactly "normal" over quite a large range of temperatures, to avoid worrying people who didn't understand why the temperature goes up when you go uphill in high temperatures and goes down when you go downhill in the winter.

The later P3 cars do have a temp gauge, though, provided you got the TFT instrument module.

My car suffered from that the vanes on the condensor, for the AC, collapsed and rotated 90°. Many of them did that, which partly blocked the air flow through the radiator behind the condensor. My car had the fan running when towing a caravan even when it was +10°C outside. Then the condensor started leaking, so I had it replaced. The temperature raise disappeared.

Another old wives tale , i have been watching and measuring volvo temperature gauges for the last 50 years they all show the same characteristics and are linear with sender resistance .. They hardly move from N because they have generous high capacity radiators . Also the Bi-Metal gauges are damped so move slowly up until the 740 when they became highly accurate expensive moving coil measuring instruments .
The current electronic digital instruments can be made to do anything volvo want them to do of course .

[ShadeTek]

My tuppenceworth is that when driving behind slow moving large vehicles, there can be a lack of airflow as you are in a wind free(well low) zone. I was coming home one evening and behind a tractor trailer for a mile uphill. Got home and switched the engine off to find my radiator fans on full speed for a good ten minutes before shutting off. Took me a while to work out why!

[Whyman]

Originally Posted by ShadeTek

My tuppenceworth is that when driving behind slow moving large vehicles, there can be a lack of airflow as you are in a wind free(well low) zone. I was coming home one evening and behind a tractor trailer for a mile uphill. Got home and switched the engine off to find my radiator fans on full speed for a good ten minutes before shutting off. Took me a while to work out why!

Following a large truck with my van in tow improves the mpg by about 10% so I can support what you are saying. If I were towing up hill I would not stop behind the large truck but drop back to improve airflow.

Incidentally this only applies to trucks with rigid bodies anything that is a non standard shape such as tankers or cement mixers are bad news with a very disturbed airflow that upsets the van but by far the worse for me are full car transporters .

[Clan]

Originally Posted by ShadeTek

My tuppenceworth is that when driving behind slow moving large vehicles, there can be a lack of airflow as you are in a wind free(well low) zone. I was coming home one evening and behind a tractor trailer for a mile uphill. Got home and switched the engine off to find my radiator fans on full speed for a good ten minutes before shutting off. Took me a while to work out why!

This can happen with tail winds too , a friend had a fiesta and one warm windy day going over a long estuary bridge the temperature was going up and up , he stopped the other side , carried on and it never happened again . the wind speed must have been the same or a little more than the car .

[ShadeTek]

If your engine is overheating or approaching it, you can help matters buy turning your cabin heat up to max, open all the vents, turn the ventilator fan to full and wind down windows to let the heat out. This will dump a lot of heat out of the engine.

[ferg55]

I did this driving a Mk2 Golf around the the M25 one cold winters night, my wife and I were returning home (she was asleep!) and I noticed the temp gauge in the red - not wanting to pull over on the hard shoulder, I did exactly as Shadetek says to ease the temperature down (also drove in as high a gear as possible to keep RPM down and coasted down the hills). The gauge hovered just below the red. When off the M25 I pulled over and let the car cool down, and topped up the coolant (it was very low). I also opened the bonnet so it was on it's second safety catch, to allow more air in, and headed off again driving on A-roads and through the local towns. The gauge was near the red again but I continued, timing traffic lights and roundabouts as well as I could to avoid stopping and having to accelerate again, and we made it back home.

The next morning I discovered the radiator had sprung a major leak and there was no coolant left in the system - the top-up mid journey would have drained out almost immediately and so I had driven the journey with no coolant. After a new rad was installed (a 2nd hand larger one from a Seat Toledo) the car was fine and had suffered no ill effects - I was lucky it was so cold that night!