Pete, check the link - the AC fan does drag the temp down, which is why the gauge fluctuates rather than just rising (it says).

GSF have the clutches around £70 in eBay, so I'll call the nearest store and see if they'll match the price and get it done tomorrow.

Have you done or considered doing a sniff test on the engine coolant?

Aylmer suggested that. Still, with no oil or bubbles in the coolant, and no mayo in the oil, I'm inclined to fix the fan first anyway since it's clearly not working properly. It's booked into them in a couple of weeks for a service/diag session anyway, so I should fix the obvious bust stuff I think before then.

Well I hoped. I changed the fan clutch, which was definitely knackered. Same problem though, gets hot, comes down... up... next step has to be a rad I reckon.

Close to giving up today though.

Stop chucking money at it, get a diagnostic tool and read off some live values...  Pete

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2014 L405 Autobiography SDV8 4.4 Loire Blue Ebony interior
2011 L322 Vogue SE 4.4 TDV8 Baltic Blue. Parchment over Navy Interior. Sold
2012 L322 Autobiography 5.0 Supercharged Ipanema Sand, Jet Interior. Sold
2002 L322 Vogue 4.4 V8 Epson Green, Ivory over Aspen Interior (Fatty Offroader) Sold
-Click for Project Fatty off roader-

Last night I got to reading more stuff about the M62 cooling system. There are two potential issues generally - lack of coolant circulation, or lack of airflow. Replacing the fan clutch should have dealt with airflow, so what about circulation? Bakc to thoughts about rad/stat/water pump... but what about a simple airlock? So having read the WSM and watched a Youtube vid on bleeding the system, I thought I'd give it a try this morning.

It took almost 3L of water! I was fooled by the level indicator showing "full", but it was nothing like it!

Off on my usual test drive, twice, warm up was slower, the temp gauge was stable in the middle, and the heater worked better! I'll let her cool down now, bleed once more, then monitor for coolant loss to see if I have a leak or still need to worry about HGF.

--
Edit to add: just burped it again, less than half a litre went in.

I just leave it ticking over with the header tank top off.. sorts itself out after a while, then check it when cold after several trips over a few days... they can be a pain to do.... Pete

__________________________________________________
2014 L405 Autobiography SDV8 4.4 Loire Blue Ebony interior
2011 L322 Vogue SE 4.4 TDV8 Baltic Blue. Parchment over Navy Interior. Sold
2012 L322 Autobiography 5.0 Supercharged Ipanema Sand, Jet Interior. Sold
2002 L322 Vogue 4.4 V8 Epson Green, Ivory over Aspen Interior (Fatty Offroader) Sold
-Click for Project Fatty off roader-

After running around yesterday, the level seemed OK this morning. I'm still bothered by the level indicator not working. New expansion tank on order! I'll do a flush and refill at the same time.

Next job - rear wiper. NRV blocked, so dismantled it and cleaned it. Wiper arm seized and jets blocked. This seems to have caused the seal in the wiper motor to leak a little (even with the arm off), and the internal nylon gear is worn, so have ordered a new arm, blade and motor. £ouch.

Also tried to update the MK3 nav with v17 software, but it wouldn't take the disc. Taking the top off the unit showed the factory disk in there, but it wouldn't eject. Did it manually, tried with the update and the original, but it just tried to spit them out (and failed). I think it's dead. I don't really care as I use my phone, but it would be nice to have it functional. Maybe I'll find a cheap one on ebay sometime for kicks.

Now off to see if I can find some plastic paint that's a reasonable match for the interior! And some plastic glue to fix the seat valance. I'll probably order a tyre to swap out the one mismatched one.

If you are looking for interior paint to match the foundry grey paint I got some made up by these people which is a good match.

https://www.paints4u.com/

If you contact them you want the following; Colour (STD) (29 131) FOUNDRY GREY 100ml tin.

Actually I meant paint to match the cream/parchment colour. The tailgate trim and C-pillars are a bit scratched up, so I thought I'd paint them if I can match the colour. I'll worry about the foundry colour some other time - actually, I was thinking about using a darker colour as I think it might look nice. I have a few odd cans I've used restoring another car, so might just hunt around the garage and see what takes my fancy!

Monitoring the coolant level seems to show it's OK on petrol. I tried briefly on LPG and will check the coolant level to see if the vapouriser is leaking gas into the coolant, and would therefore need a diaphragm kit. While using LPG I get an occasional stumble, which I'm surmising is a clagged filter, so I'll book it in for a service and check over (and to get a stamp in the book).

Otherwise, having lifted the gear shifter surround, I got repeated mad bonging with "transfer box neutral" messages and when I next stopped it wouldn't go into low range. Lifting the trim and fiddling with the connector made it go away and I could get into low again. I guess I'll have to clean the connector and, while I'm in there, make sure the circuit board isn't full of coffee/milk/baby gack like everything else!

I have to say, I'm almost terrified to drive it now. Reading the forums makes me feel like every bit of rough road is a gearbox failure, every creak from the leather is an impending steering column droop and every occasional hesitation is doom on the way!

Tried to go out this evening. Mad bonging, looked like I was stuck in low range and no amount of fiddling with the connector made any difference. Limped home, parked up, got "apply handbrake" and "key battery low" messages, couldn't lock the damn thing. Took my wife's car

OK, time to clean up the console switches. Guess what? Coffee, milk shake, yucky stuff. Dismantled the switch, gave it a good clean with alcohol and scraped off the lumpy bits, and back in the car. Tested again, and it was in high with the low range light flashing. I made a guess that it's probably a bit like my Series, so drove backwards and forwards, and it shifted into high again. And... looks like it worked (for now). A short test drive seemed fine.

So to address the couple of smaller issues. The key battery was just under 3V, so although I didn't have a CR2016, a CR2025 fits OK and works fine. The handbrake warning seems to be a dodgy handbrake switch. When I push down the handbrake, the warning light comes on to show the brake is on. One for the "not so important" list.

I have also found that the key won't lock the driver's door, so I'll need to open that up and make sure the key barrel is mated properly to the latch.

Some day I hope to use it as a mode of transport!

I took my wife out for a short shopping trip this afternoon and all was fine. Later, we went to get my daughter form school, and sat in the car park for about 15 minutes with the engine off, but mucking about with the audio system. When we moved off again, BONG BONG with "transfer box neutral" messages all the way home (25 mins or so). Engine off when home, then started again to park up and all was OK! Changed range a few times, and it all worked. Then later, another short-ish trip to drop my wife at a local meertng and everything was fine, went to pick her up later and another couple of warnings.

And the upper tailgate external switch stopped working, but has started working again, and one rear window has dropped randomly a couple of times.

I'm wondering if it's a low battery, so I've ordered a voltmeter that goes in the accessory socket (it'll be useful for the Series anyway). Otherwise I'll check out the transfer box motor potentiometer over the weekend.

At least I got the wiper motor and arm swapped for the ones I ordered, although I've had to re-seal the NRV as I must have damaged it a little while unblocking it. It will do for now.

With some renewed enthusiasm after meeting Pete (Haylands) over the weekend, I decided that the battery was somewhat under the weather, since it dropped from 12.1 to 11.3v over night, and didn't charge on a 30 min drive. ECP have a 25% discount this weekend, so a Bosch Silver 020 replaced the unbranded 019 that was fitted.

I can tell you it's a really tight fit! Some swearing and skinned knuckles got it fitted. Some things I learned:

- I can put the bonnet in service position on my own, but getting it down again is a pest since the gas struts keep swinging in the way. I'll tape 'em up next time.
- The "transfer box neutral" is not affected. Shame. I can hear the motor moving around, and it will go into and out of low range but it doesn't seem to know it's there, the mountain light flashing all the time. Turning off and on seems to reset it. I'll rebuild the pot at some point.
- The on board diags seem to work better, detecting a blown sidelight bulb I hadn't spotted.

I bought a new NRV from Halfords which fixed the minor drop from the rear washer feed, and eventually (more swearing) got the tailgate trim fitted properly. It looks much better now!

Now I'm doing a test respray of the cup holder to see if the dark grey that I have hanging around looks any good. Oh, and the Tamiya paint suggested as a match for Foundry on another forum isn't a match. It's too light, wrong metallic, no texture.