Am I overheating?

[philwhite]

Okay, I’m probably worrying unnecessarily, but I think my FD may be overheating. I noticed last night while getting something out of the book while the car was cooling that the exhaust was giving out incredible heat, and then the cooling fans came on. The car is completely standard and I only have the stock gauges, the temp gauge has always sits slightly below 9 and never moves once up to operating temp.
 
 
On the drive to work this morning I noticed that the stock temp gauge showed operating temp within a mile and when I parked up the cooling fans came on again.
 
Is this something to worry about or normal of these rotaries which I know run hot anyway? The cars been driving fine and like I say the stock temp gauge never moves, even if I really push it. The cars only about 10k into a fresh rebuild. Any thoughts on this, have I a got a problem that needs checking out?

[trotter]

Any trouble from the coolant light / coolant levels? If not, I would think you are OK. How quickly you get to operating temp depends on loads of factors, incl. how you are driving. I\'ve had mine reach temp after only a few mins before.

PS: the FD also has a quick warm-up feature which may be the reason you are getting to temp quickly. IIRC, pressing the clutch in whilst starting disables it.....

[philwhite]

Any trouble from the coolant light / coolant levels? If not, I would think you are OK. How quickly you get to operating temp depends on loads of factors, incl. how you are driving. I\'ve had mine reach temp after only a few mins before.
 
PS: the FD also has a quick warm-up feature which may be the reason you are getting to temp quickly. IIRC, pressing the clutch in whilst starting disables it.....

Thanks for the reply Trotter, I guess I\'m just worrying too much as the car is driving fine, guess I just never noticed how hot the exhaust got before! Coolant level is fine and visiable in the neck and I\'ve not had the light come on. I have to do a lot of stop/start driving when I first leave home so I guess this is why it shows as being up to running temp so quickly.

[Jit]

if the temperature is 65 deg then itll sit that just under 9 o clock position on the stock temp gauge. If its 105 deg then itll also sit at that same position! moral of the story - get an aftermarket water temp gauge!!

[philwhite]

if the temperature is 65 deg then itll sit that just under 9 o clock position on the stock temp gauge. If its 105 deg then itll also sit at that same position! moral of the story - get an aftermarket water temp gauge!!

Yes I think I\'ll get one or an Apexi when I\'m next down at Super 7, I\'ve been told the stock gauges are less than useless. If the car were to overheat with only stock gauges is there any way of telling? From what I\'ve been told in the past if the stock gauge goes past 9 o clock then its usually too late and the damage has been done.

[ashc]

sounds fine to me, but as you say as soon as the gauge goes more than halfway its often too late unless you shut it down quickly - the main reasons it might would be if the thermostat was stuck or you lost coolant though.
Aftermarket guages usually have sensors either in the top rad hose (after the thermostat, so doesn\'t help much) or tapped into the filler neck, also after the thermostat but a bit closer to the stock position. The main benefit of the aftermarket ones like the Defis is that you can set an alarm to beep at you which helps you to react more quickly if something goes wrong. The PFC obviously uses the stock sensor, which is fine so long as it is working, and it doesn\'t beep at you. Overall, PFC is the way to go if you plan to do any mods or off-street use imo, trouble is with the yen:pound at the moment they aren\'t as cheap as they were.

[SiH]

The fnas will come on at stationary - it\'s normal behaviour on any car, it\'s just the rotary produces more heat than most:)

When the car is moving the airflow over the rad cools the water in it - no fans needed. When it\'s stationary there\'s no airflow, so the water temps rise, hit the limit set by the sensor, and the fans come on to cool it down - i\'d be worried if it didn\'t do that

Exhaust will get very hot too - Rotaries create pretty hot exhaust gasses, and the turbo\'s compound this.

Welcome to FD owner\'s paranoia

[trotter]

The fnas will come on at stationary - it\'s normal behaviour on any car, it\'s just the rotary produces more heat than most:)

When the car is moving the airflow over the rad cools the water in it - no fans needed. When it\'s stationary there\'s no airflow, so the water temps rise, hit the limit set by the sensor, and the fans come on to cool it down - i\'d be worried if it didn\'t do that

Exhaust will get very hot too - Rotaries create pretty hot exhaust gasses, and the turbo\'s compound this.

Welcome to FD owner\'s paranoia

"Sh!t, what was that noise? Did you hear it?" *turn stereo down* "I definately heard something coming from front/rear/middle/underneath/roof/etc/etc (delete as appropriate)" "better drive slowly with all windows down to hear it again...."

:bandit :bandit

[Initial-D]

Ahh FD paranoia!

I think we all live in that painful world. Imagine if we could just jump in and turn the key without having to glance or check anything!

We should start a thread for who has the most reliable rotary.

[ashc]

not only the temps, clunks, whines and rattles - dont mention the smells!!! ...does that exhaust smell a bit sweet to you? can you smell a hint of fuel under the plenum, is that meant to smell of hot oil, i think i can smell exhaust fumes in the cabin...... my nose is paranoid lol!!!

[philwhite]

Thats for the reassurance everyone!
 
Ah the paranioa, it just wont go away. When I pulled up a few nights ago I heard an odd squeaking noise and started looking around the car, turns out it was just grass hoppers in the bush next to where I park, I think I\'m going mad!
 
My dad always laughs at the \'Pre flight checks\' I do before going out in the rex, guess its something we all get used to.

[captainbizzaro]

FB paranoia is similar apart from you get worried when the smell goes away rather than vice versa :rolleyes:

[MaLicE]

anyone else get the POP when u turn the ignition off then like 10-20 seconds after the engine has stopped you get a pop from the exhaust?? scared the crap out of me the first time it happened

[od404]

We should start a thread for who has the most reliable rotary.

Can\'t see that getting many replies :Giggle

To be honest as the others have said, it sounds like your engine is behaving as it should, so no need to worry

[marcusd666]

My dad always laughs at the \'Pre flight checks\' I do before going out in the rex, guess its something we all get used to.

The old pre flight checks oil check, water check, battery (got the power to crank) check. I think we all do these before even thinking about get in!:D