Flushing the Hijet

I did it...running much better but fan still doesn't kick in of its own accord and now I've somehow upset the over-ride switch. Still, making progress, thanks Woodie

Have you tried bridging the Connector with a length of wire Andy?

alright guys. An update on the hijet - got an itch and ended up taking her the other side of the country. she did marvellously for about 100 miles. then that slowly creeping temp gauge pin no matter how hard i prayed just would not go the other way. once it reached just below the max mark i pulled her over for a rest. underneath the passenger seat there were violent bubbles and hissing from the expansion also a little bit of pink fluid seeping from the cap on the coolant pipe. i must not have done enough of a good job on restoring the pipe from its previous state and I'm guessing theres been an infiltration of air into the coolant system. I let her cool down for a bit and the rest of my journey was interrupted by routine cool down stops for her as the temp slowly crept beyond comfort - every 20 miles or so.

Now, i dont want to have to take half a week to get back home when i set off in a couple of days. I brought with me tools, spare coolant, some pipe, some tape, the epoxy stuff. Before i leave im going to try my best to re seal the coolant cap seating pipe. Dont have enough coolant with me to do the full bleed, wondering if its a good idea to skip that bit and just fill her up from the front with the heater matrix bleed plug off to get out any air bubbles we may have incurred?

Thanks for the cooling tips Woodie. I had left the settings on the radiator up to full from when we did the bleed and during my 100 mile trouble free break i don't actually recall any hot air ever coming from the heater... not quite sure what this means.

I will take a closer look at this fan when I get back.

Just remember the old fruit that hot air only comes out to screen or feet, not hot air to middle vents. I fell for that one. Sounds as though a replacement rad cap pipe is really on the shopping list. Keep overheating it and you'll only do some damage which will cost more.

Both radiator caps. The one under the seat is obviously leaking. If it wasn't then the water would have been evacuated into the Expansion bottle and out of the outlet pipe all over the chassis.
You must bleed the Matrix again or the air in there will expand and push the pressure up and the water out and then the water overheats and steam takes over. Two new caps and a full bleed is imperative.

Woodie...as your other patient of the moment (!) I wanted to report that I bridged the sitch and hey presto the fan kicked in. The wiring down below is a spaghetti bodged together by previous owner. Whilst trying to work out how the over-ride switch was wired in, I realised that the wiring itself was causing everything to act weird.

Long story short....fan is now kicking in when its supposed to!  Result!

Now to work ouut why my fuel gauge packed up in the middle of all this.  Thanks for your help and advice...Andy

Sounds like Sticking Float Syndrome. Common to most Hi-Jet's. Had you let the petrol get low in the past couple of days? . My gauge hasn't been working for about 6 months then suddenly after filling the tank up, hey presto it started working again.
Fortunately having LPG as well when the petrol runs out I just flick the switch to gas and instantly you are running on LPG. Beats carrying a plastic can full of petrol in the back all of the time for when you run out of petrol in town or in a traffic jam. Most embarrassing.

Yes, let it run very low as was due MOT and petrol tank leaks....I'm LPG as well but still haven't tried it. Now I will have to. Live in a fairly big town but the nearest LPG is a good 10-12 miles away.

2 new caps. damn. The 2 ive got are practically new. Good job they are only cheap. My resources are limited till we get home.

Wish us luck

Made it back. before setting off i did a coolant pipe rework and a matrix bleed. She reached the hot point within about 50 miles. Pulled over but no gurgles or steam. Then after a 1 hour break she almost got too hot so I pulled into the services for about 10 mins. Again nothing too violent coming from beneith the passenger seat. Took off once again and I did actually notice the sound of the fan kicking in very briefly. This time somehow she behaved her self for the remainder 90 miles home, temp guage staying about 2mm short off the worry zone. Now, I need to make another long journey tomorrow...

There definitely is no hot air coming out of the vents under feet and screen...?

I lust after your wheels sir

Keep your lusting under control Pyke. It got me into trouble many a time and eventually a divorce.

It sounds as though the valve behind your radiator unfortunately may be stuck in the closed position, not allowing hot water into the matrix or only a small amount. The matrix doesn't bleed too well with the valve not fully open ( heat control on the dash in the hot position). Does your heat control arm move easily or is there a bit of resistance when moving it??
If it moves very freely then the cable may have become detatched from the Valve Operating arm or broken the end of it as the whole valve is plastic. Or it may have become detached in the control in the dashboard.

Either way it is a right pain to rectify.. Bumper off - radiator out - OR dashboard out. Not nice. Looks like you had better have a couple of bottles of Vino yourself.

Fancy implying that me, a Tee Totaller would actually imbibe Alcohol. As I said to my best mate at the weekend =I'm not as thissed as you pink I am.

Yeah there is quite a bit of resistance on the heat control arm... but no hot air to be felt

If it was blocked then he wouldn't have been able to bleed air and water out of the Matrix PFM. The tiny little bleeding pipe on top of the matrix would get blocked long before the two heater flow pipes. I think that it could be either the plastic valve controlled from the dash or perhaps one of the heater pipes has collapsed on a moulded bend ant and is restricting the flow through the matrix.

I will have a look in the yard tomorrow underneath a truck I am dismantling and see if there might be something else that might be causing it.

i dont know how good the air pressure is meant to be but its coming out very faintly when on under windscreen and feet setting and almost non existent when coming out the front vents...

In that case is the fan working on all three speeds? Is it working at all. You should be able to hear it even on the slowest speed with the ignition on and the engine off.

The heat control lever I mentioned yesterday is the top left one of the four NOT the top right one.

Yea the fan can be heard clearly with ignition on engine off. Oddly The air pressure on the middle speed is good. Better than the top. Air comes from below windscreen it's not actually too bad (Just cold) but no air at all from vents when stationary. When on windscreen setting I get most air pressure when im on the following setting (see pic)





Also I notice switching through settings brightens the warning lights in the dash slightly upon each flick as though they are trying to work... hmm...

Sounds like your heater has also got "Logi - itis" too. His fan won't work on top speed, a common complaint, though I must admit that I haven't had one out of the hundreds of Hi-Jets I have bought.
You have got the warm air lever in the correct position so I can only think that the hot water flow valve is not operating.
I can't give you or anyone else any time today as I am off to Bournemouth shortly for a few days break. Got family coming down to house sit while I am away.
I will try and catch up with the Forum this evening.

Just one other thing is that if you put the lower right lever to the right, when you are moving you should get outside air forced through the heater rather than recirculating the internal air as you are doing at the moment.

"logi-itis" hey lol im not the only one then. Yikes... Is it a bumper and radiator-out jobby to fix...?

Sunny Bournemouth! That happens to be my old parish as it goes Thanks for your time and all the support Woodie may you have a great break

I just took her to Wales and back. She did very well for over 140 miles until we reached some very long slow moving traffic through the valleys and the steep hills i think it was all too much and sadly caused overheating / expansion boiling though somewhat luckily just as I'd reached my destination. When coming home I did the matrix bleed and dodged traffic and she took me for 4 hours all the way home no problems at all. For the last hour or so the temp guage was at steady at mid point.

So I guess it's the slow traffic thing I need to find a fix for.

Another thing. My hijet had a conversion for mobility. It apears it used to have a winch installed for pulling up mobility scooter or wheelchair and i guess that's what my mystery non operating switch upfront was for.

Maybe i can rewire this to the fan for the back up in the slow moving traffic...

Slow moving traffic = Fan Override Switch

I'm glad that everyone is finally getting my message of 4 years ago that an Override Switch is imperative on a Hi-Jet.
Highly Jetted and Logi both disagreed, but they both came round in the end and fitted Fan Switches. It is probably the first job that I do on a Hi-Jet.. On a 1300 it is a piece of cake to do. Bit more intricate on a 993cc though.
And I will mention it again..... Putting the heater on full blast with the windows open drops the temperature down by 5-6 degrees.

I just took the front rad cap off and heard a dripping noise coming from under the van. went and had a look to see coolant leaking  



Here's a look round the bend...



Oh dear.

Hmmm that on first glance looks to be near a core plug, is it leaking from there?

Here's one with a torch on the area...

It's coming from somewhere above there I think.

Its flowing down over that circular inlet part just top left of the torch. so leaking from above there I can't get my big head up far enough to see exactly where from though... it only leaks when I take a cap off...there was no stain on the driveway before to indicate previous leaking ..

You will have to take the inspection cover off to get a better view.

Oh. I don't know what or where that is...

I'm scared of taking her to a mechanic coz rom what ive gathered hijets are a special kind of beast and Im worried they wont understand her. I dont understand her but i am willing to try.