Warning light on after 'interesting' drive home.

[citsncycles]

Coming home tonight the 14 managed to shred both the alternator & hydraulic pump belts. After a few minutes fitting a new alternator belt in the rain on the M4, followed by a gentle drive (thank god for manual steering )to the nearest car shop (Halfrauds ) for a new hydraulic pump belt (although they listed it as for the water pump ) which was fitted in the rain in their car park, everything was charging, suspending and stopping as it should be.

However, I must have disturbed something while grovelling in the dark, as I now have the warning light that looks like a saucepan lid floating on some waves on . I think this is the coolant fluid level light, although I've checked both the coolant & hydraulic fluid levels and they are fine. Obviously I want to sort this before I use the car again. According to the Haynes book of lies the switch for this is in the radiator, however mine has 2 - which is the one I want, and what's the other for???

Any other advice or hints will be greatfully recieved.

[Tim Leech]

You've probably pulled the wire off the sensor mate, check it in the light and the dry!

[Defender110]

The other will be the electric fan thermo switch.

[citsncycles]

The other will be the electric fan thermo switch.

Of course it will be

I'm still getting my head round these new fangled things like electric fans (& radiators, electric windows, electronic ignition, central locking, rear seat belts, fog lights & indicator repeators)

I'll check the connections in the morning & let you all know what I find.

[electrokid]

managed to shred both the alternator & hydraulic pump belts

You did very well to fix that lot en route !

I think you must have disturbed something - or some electronics got wet while you had the bonnet up in the rain - a bit of fiddling should find it.

warning light that looks like a saucepan lid floating on some waves

Oh what a brilliant description Mike

I hate symbols with a vengeance - I wanted to do something with my web hosting and couldn't find a way so I raised a help ticket. They got back to me and said go to this link... and click on 'options'. so I went to the link but 'options' were not to be found anywhere on the page. Emailed back saying 'it's not' there' - they emailed back saying 'yes it is' - which happened a couple of times before I gave up.

Looked at the page again and again and after much searching...

Now if they had told me to click on the tiny blue box at the top left hand corner of the sites listing... I'd have cracked it straightaway

Damn Microsoft Server 2003 - give me Apache anytime

[citsncycles]

right, slightly confused now.

Fired the car up, all the lights went out, then after a few seconds, both the saucepan and the master stop lights faded up and resolutely stayed on. So far I've disconnected each sensor on the radiator in turn, starting up each time, and cleaned the connections before reconnecting and trying again, and so far no change. I've also tried moving round wires, but it's difficult to see what effect it has when I can't see the lights at the time .

One thing I forgot last night is that occasionally on the way home, usually when braking at low speed, the lights would go out briefly. It's as if the water is shifting above & below the sensor, but I've double checked the coolant level and it's fine.

Anyone out there know if there are any particular loom connections under the bonnet that are worth checking. I don't want to disconnect things unnecessarily for fear of causing more problems than I solve .

I'm wondering what the sensor does when it starts to fail, and if this is a coincidence!

[scarecrow]

You could always over-fill your radiator - on my tu3 excess coolant is safely rejected via an overflow once the engine has warmed up, thus naturally achieving its operational level.

[citsncycles]

Hi Scarecrow - I'll try that - if nothing else I'll know that there's plenty of coolant for each journey until I can sort out what's going on!

[Defender110]

I'm still bemused how the hydraulic pump belt and the alternator belt both managed to shred at the same time as on the diesel they are on opposite sides of the engine, do I take it that on the petrol they run next to each other?
Fading in and out and doing funny things when the brakes are applied would tempt me to look towards an earthing problem.
Is your alternator OK? not getting hot or siezing causing the shredded belt?

[citsncycles]

On the 14 petrol both items are driven from a double pulley at the the 'front' of the engine, with the pump mounted below the alternator just behind the front panel, next to the radiator.

I've not had a chance to look at earths yet, but it would make sense that I may have either loosened or damaged an earth point while grubbing round down there.

I have to admit that this is largely self inflicted . I was told when I bought the car that the alternator belt needed changing but that the owner hadn't had a chance to do this as he had needed to replace the front anti roll bar bolts a week before the car went on ebay. That was over 3500 miles ago so it's my fault - especially as I've been running round with a new belt in the boot since a week after I bought the car .

I'm off to check any earth connections I can find now, then I might run over to my mate Tony's workshop to see if they can spot something I'm missing.

[KevR]

I'm still bemused how the hydraulic pump belt and the alternator belt both managed to shred at the same time as on the diesel they are on opposite sides of the engine, do I take it that on the petrol they run next to each other?

Yep, on my old TRS they were both at the timing belt end of the engine, so if one belt goes it can get tangled up in the other and wreck that too.

[electrokid]

If your rad level sensor is the same as mine (I'd think there's a fair chance it might not be but then again it might be) the header tank is built into the side of the rad itself and the sensor is quite low down.

The sensor is 2 wire and goes to a small box with some weird electronics in it - that electronics needs a ground which is to a bolt screwed into a captive nut close to the top of the rad tucked away on the LH side of the metalwork close to the rad.

This nut tends to rust solid - maybe a poor connection.

I've had a good look at the circuit and cannot make head nor tail of it - my best guess is it might be designed to 'flicker' the warning lights to get the driver's attention - but that's best guess only. But it looks to me to be the kind of circuit that's quite unnecessary and probably prone to giving problems.

If you suspect the box of tricks - open it up and check for water ingress - dry with a hairdryer until you're sure it's bone dry then spray with clear laquer then gently with the hairdryer again to dry the laquer.

[citsncycles]

That's it! The alternator belt for the most part broke quite cleanly, but then got itself tangled in the pump belt, which proceeded to wrap itelf round the crank pully several times very tightly!