Another one for the overheating club..

Nice introduction to the Hijet-set lifestyle! Picked up a low-ish mileage Porter 1.3 earlier this week. When idling for a minute or so when up to temperature, the temp gauge heads to near enough the H and the heater goes cold. When driving again the heater warms up quite quickly and the gauge floats back to around the halfway point. When the engine was cold I flipped the passenger seat back for a look and noticed the coolant was tea coloured and mostly sat in the expansion tank and both top hoses were pretty much flattened. Opening the top cap caused a nice burp. Have ordered replacement caps, antifreeze and a new stat. The guides on here have been very useful so far. Seems this overheating lark is part of the initiation, wish me luck! Cheers all!

You are heading the right way with what to do next, before putting the new stuff back on, give it a full flush out. Something def not right to suck the hoses in like that.

Is the fan kicking in ok?
The contacts on the fan switch have been known to corrode

I did hear the fan kick in earlier this week but haven't noticed it doing so since but I've had the blower on! Will test.

To collapse the pipes like that, there is also some blockage between header tank and rad cap return pipework.

It'll all be rotten and full of radweld steel seal etc.

I have a 1.3 Hijet 2001 which overheats and I have no idea what to do. No garage wants seems to want to work on it and I don't have a clue about mechanics myself. Can anyone help? Pleeaaase