overheating when towing and when standing

[danny200te]

hi guys i have a 93 te 200 auto ,just bought a new caravan today and when towing it home about 5 miles the needle ended up almost in the red and that was on the motorway at about 60 i could tell that it was,nt happy 4 th gear felt really sluggish the exhaust has a blow at the rear and the cat rattles on acceleration .driving the car on its own though is fine unless we get into traffic for more than 10 mins then the needle creeps up any ideas ?

 

[47p2]

Bunged up radiator, faulty thermostat, cooling fan not cutting in, water pump impeller broken, faulty radiator cap, low water level........

 

[danny200te]

thanks for reply i was wondering if the exhaust blowing and the cat rattling could affect the lambda sensor causing the computer to adjust the mixture resulting in overheating can this happen?

 

[television]

Have you ever done the carrot test on the fan.

The blowing exhaust can slow the car a little as the gas comming out of the hole tends to draw back the gas going out in the pipe/box

 

[danny200te]

ha ha did carrot test with a magazine the fan stopped when it was hot i thought it might be this but it should not get hot driving at 60 there must be a lot of cool air to the rad at this speed. will repair exhaust tomorrow and we shall see

 

[Pontoneer]

Apart from checking over the cooling system , I'd suggest that the 200 isn't really up to towing anything other than a very small caravan as it is the smallest engine in the range . The 'sluggishness' you mentioned , I would respectfully suggest is only to be expected . I used to tow an Abbey GT418 , which from memory had an unladen weight of around 1300Kg and I needed my 6 cylinder estate cars to pull it along decently ( I towed it with a 123 series 280TE , 124 series 300TE and 124 series 300TE-24 ) .

The vehicle may have a high enough kerbweight for stability but you're always going to struggle on upward slopes .

I'd also be more concerned about overheating my automatic gearbox than my engine . The autobox is normally cooled by a pipe running through the radiator and exchanges heat from the ATF into the already warm radiator - if your coolant temp is running high , this will not work so well , or at all .

I always used to fit a separate Kenlowe transmission oil cooler to my towcars for safety ; the £100 or so it cost is a lot cheaper than an automatic gearbox .

 

[television]

I understand that all 124 had a cooler

 

[Pontoneer]

It was still part of the radiator on both of my 300's . I just kept the Kenlowe and transferred it over when I changed cars as it was only a matter of buying new flexible hoses which were about £10-£15 each to reconnect to the original cooler .

After the sad demise of my last 124 , I also kept the towbar which , with a bit of welding , I should be able to adapt to fit my W111 .