Clio dynamique 2002
Hello... Wondering if anyone can possibly help before I take this to a garage and get ripped off. I know absolutely nothing about cars, only from reading a few forums etc. Sorry for the length of this post by the way.
I bought a 2002 clio dynamique from a guy the other week to put me on till next year when I can afford a new one, looked in good condition, took it for a test drive and it drove fine, some slight creaminess under the oil cap but he assured me it was down to being driven short journeys by his daughter to and from work, I did my research beforehand and he seemed like a decent chap so believed him, anyway...
Drove from mine to my mums on Friday, approx 75 miles, mostly motorway and A roads and about 20 minutes into the journey I noticed the STOP light and the red engine light came on, just as quickly though it went off, I had no idea what it was but figured that it had gone off so might be OK. Kept my eye on the dashboard and then I noticed my temp gauge going up then dropping really quickly back to half way. It carried on doing this all the way to my mums, only the STOP light and engine light would come on if it rose high enough, but they would go off within half a second as soon as it dropped again (hope I'm making sense!). The higher my revs the more often the STOP light came on, the lower the revs it just rose a little bit and dropped so I was doing about 60mph on the motorway! I noticed the heaters in my car weren't working either and just blew out cold air...
On the way back from my mums yesterday, the same thing happened again but I kept my eye on the temp gauge as much as I could without taking my eyes off the road... I noticed for the first part of the journey, driving through villages at about 30/40mph the temp gauge would drop below half way to about 1/4, then rise up again... Soon as I got on the motorway and did above 60mph it would rise above half way and then drop again.
About 20 miles away from home the blowers started kicking out hot air and the temp gauge stablised?! Not for long though, they soon went stone cold and the gauge started going mental again.
I took it to work this morning and the temp gauge was dropping to 1/4 again, blowers felt slightly warm, but not hot at all.
Just thought I'd point out that coolant levels are OK, it's not losing any water, no white smoke coming out my exhaust, no loss of power and it feels fine to drive.
Any ideas?
I bought a 2002 clio dynamique from a guy the other week to put me on till next year when I can afford a new one, looked in good condition, took it for a test drive and it drove fine, some slight creaminess under the oil cap but he assured me it was down to being driven short journeys by his daughter to and from work, I did my research beforehand and he seemed like a decent chap so believed him, anyway...
Drove from mine to my mums on Friday, approx 75 miles, mostly motorway and A roads and about 20 minutes into the journey I noticed the STOP light and the red engine light came on, just as quickly though it went off, I had no idea what it was but figured that it had gone off so might be OK. Kept my eye on the dashboard and then I noticed my temp gauge going up then dropping really quickly back to half way. It carried on doing this all the way to my mums, only the STOP light and engine light would come on if it rose high enough, but they would go off within half a second as soon as it dropped again (hope I'm making sense!). The higher my revs the more often the STOP light came on, the lower the revs it just rose a little bit and dropped so I was doing about 60mph on the motorway! I noticed the heaters in my car weren't working either and just blew out cold air...
On the way back from my mums yesterday, the same thing happened again but I kept my eye on the temp gauge as much as I could without taking my eyes off the road... I noticed for the first part of the journey, driving through villages at about 30/40mph the temp gauge would drop below half way to about 1/4, then rise up again... Soon as I got on the motorway and did above 60mph it would rise above half way and then drop again.
About 20 miles away from home the blowers started kicking out hot air and the temp gauge stablised?! Not for long though, they soon went stone cold and the gauge started going mental again.
I took it to work this morning and the temp gauge was dropping to 1/4 again, blowers felt slightly warm, but not hot at all.
Just thought I'd point out that coolant levels are OK, it's not losing any water, no white smoke coming out my exhaust, no loss of power and it feels fine to drive.
Any ideas?
