Bloody Bleed Valves

renaulturbo

renaulturbo

Active member
Tadpole
Joined
Oct 1, 2001
Messages
519
Location
melbourne,victoria
After changing a one of the front cooling hoses on my Fuego and filling up with coolant, i tried to bleed all the air out of the system by releasing the bleed valve on thermostat housing, carburettor and heater. Problem is, a while agoafter slightly opening it a while ago, the thermostat valve jammed and i could not open or close it anymore.

This made me have to brutally hammer a screw into it as a quick-fix. As well as buying the hose, i bought a spare valve to replace the jammed one. I ended chiseling all the head of the valve off, and the thing would still not budge and to make things worse, the carburettor valve has also jammed shut and wont budge. I sprayed 3 in 1 on it with no results.

To remove the thread left in the thermostat housing may be to hard to remove now but would anyone have any ideas on how to removethe carbie valve w/o having to replace carburettor automatic choke housings?

Valves i think are made of brass (more like plasticine...)and are rounded easily. Its annoying not being able to bleed the system as cooling fans refuse to work and engine overheats quickly when the air is not removed, returning to normal a few hours later
 
Sounds like the car has a few problems!

Why don't the fans work, that would be the first thing I'd address. Check the thermo contact in the radiator, short the wires to see if the fans kick in, also check the plugs where the fans connect to the loom, they can suffer from corrosion.

Next to the bleed screws, no easy options here, apart from replacing with decent ones, you could carefully drill out the brass and try picking out the brass thread from the housing, or just drill the housing and replace the thread with a helicoil (be careful about damaging the bleed screw seat). The thermostat housing sounds like it may have had better days, especially if something has been hammered into it, probably best to find a new one.

Simon
 
Nah, the fans usually dont work if the coolant level is low or there is air in the system. They do work properely though, theres no problem with anything else. Judging by the response, guess i'll have to start buying the housings.
 
Spot on, if the coolant can't find the thermal sensor the sensor wont operate the switch. I put a little bit of grease on mine the last time I got them out - they were as stiff as. So far so good.

I reckon that one of the Renaults had a bleeder in the top radiator hose - could be adaptable to replace the theromostat housing one ?

Bob
 
There is an old trick I've heard used by some of the guys in Europe.
Park the car with the snout up and tail down, or alternatively, jack the front of the car up. Open the heater temp control to warmest setting and fill the header tank to the top. Start the engine until the thermostat opens and then let the car sit for a while. Another one is to fit a funnel with an extension and jam it in the filler hole. Fill the funnel to the top & again let it sit. This brings the filler and header tank to a lecel higher than heater matrix etc causing the air to bubble out. Pumping the hoses also can work on Cits so I presume on Renaults also.

Alan S
 
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