D E T A I L S : COOLING

Several topics to talk about.

Description of the cooling system

Filler caps opens at 1.03 bar
Thermostat opens when coolant temperature is at 86-90°C
Thermostat opens completely when coolant temperature is at 102°C
Fan kicks in at 102°C and stops again at 96°C
The second fan kicks in at 108°C and stops again at 103°C
The fan in the engine bay starts working when the engine bay temperature equals 75°C or higher.
The light on the dashboard is turned on at 90°C.

  

Bleeding the cooling circuit

First of all, everyone must know that bleeding the system (getting all the air out of the system) isn't an easy job to do, and must be done by following some rules. Let's hope that the professional technician thinks about it in the same way.

The F has four bleeding screws (locations) where liquid must be exiting the system until it comes out without any airbubbles.
- Put the heater control knob on fully heat
- Find the bleeding screws:
    * Open the front, at the top of the nose cone, at the right hand you will find a black, plastic bleeding screw.
    * At the front of the car, in the neighborhood of the wipers, you will find one.
    * You will find another bleeding screw in the neighborhood of the distributor cap, in the direction of the throttle body.
    *
At the other side of the engine, behind the oil dipstick, near the injectors and inlet manifold will be a small pipe connected to it with a jubilee clamp. The hose will go up to the expansion tank.
- Check the correct functioning of the auto bleed valve (the 4th bleeding location/screw).
- Drive the car for a short distance and rebleed the system


Other practical things about the cooling circuit

A good hint is to check the coolant level quickly everytime you open the boot. It's even more easily done when the black plastic pieces above the grill are removed. The coolant level must be at the same height as the seal of the tank. Some prefer to fill it a bit more up, in that way that the level is almost 1cm above the seal.
On the pictures shown beneath, the level is far too high, caused by a broken filler cap. The system must be able to build up a certain pressure. If the pressure rises, the boiling point of the liquid rises as well. If the fillercap is broken, the pressure can't rise enough, and the liquid starts booling at aprox. 100°C.


     

You can easily notice when the fillercap is dodgy. Remove it from the tank (don't try it when the engine is hot, you will get hurt by the hot steam escaping from the tank) and turn in upside down. The small circular, metal 'rivet' must be completely in the center of the black plastic opening. When it is near the center, get the bike out and visit your local MG-Rover dealer for a new one.

The newer fillercaps are also marked with a white dot somewhere on the top of the fillercap. It's more safe to have one of these than an earlier one.

The radiator is mounted at the front of the car, this results in cooling pipes running from the rear of the car to the front. The pipes used for this could get corroded, causing leaks. An anual check is the least you could do. It's probably not the right section of the site, but Mike Satur do sell some high quality alloy and powder coated pipes to resolve this issue (price: £65.00 ex. VAT).