Car on fire in hollyday...

[soares71]

A lot of things to check and to do before open the head of the engine right?
I was woundering about the temp gauge. I looked on the top of the engine and everething seems to be connected. In case the previous owner has disconected. Where could I check? Fuses and cable as far that I see are fine. In aonther thread someone told me that I can check the gauge itself to see if it is working, but what would be the cable? At the top of my engine I can see 2 cables from the sensors one from each side of the engine each one of the cables have 3 conncetions.

[niloc]

If the car is overpressurising, check the condition of the coolant bottle cap as well. The grey versions are no longer available - they were superceded with the green versions which had a different pressure valve system that is more reliable.
Have someone do a compression test on each cylinder, that will tell you if there is a leak in the head gasket.
The head gasket isn't a difficult job, but I believe there are special tools required (which I didn't have, so I improvised!). I would leave it to someone with mechanical knowledge and experience - you'll feel sick as a pig if you get something wrong and end up with a dead engine.

[boredhousehubby]

sorry to hear about your car,
ive literally just had the same thing happen to mine last week
i had a local independant electrician fix it and it took him 3 hours, and when he put the cables on he covered them with a black flex cable to stop it happening again ,
all in all it cost me £90 which i didnt think was too bad, the battery was fine, just totally flat and there was no damage to the alternator or starter and didnt blow a single fuse,

[soares71]

If the car is overpressurising, check the condition of the coolant bottle cap as well. The grey versions are no longer available - they were superceded with the green versions which had a different pressure valve system that is more reliable.
Have someone do a compression test on each cylinder, that will tell you if there is a leak in the head gasket.
The head gasket isn't a difficult job, but I believe there are special tools required (which I didn't have, so I improvised!). I would leave it to someone with mechanical knowledge and experience - you'll feel sick as a pig if you get something wrong and end up with a dead engine.

I think there is something wrong whit the bottle cap. I have the feeling that what is caming out from the cap (grey model), but I am wondering how the cap could increases the coolant pressure?
and what type of test could be done whit the cylinders?

[niloc]

The bottle cap has a pressure valve built into it. A faulty valve will either not allow pressure to build, or won't regulate it.
You can do a compression test on the cylinders.

[soares71]

I changed the expansion tank cap it seems to be bettar now. BUt I have another problem I am not sure that this is normal or not. When I turn my key at ignition at the first posssition even when the dash light and main lights are off the small white lights above the indicator lights still on all the time. Is it normal?
Low pressure oil flashing in the dash board sometimes and after turn off the car. Car would not start again just after somethimes and car would start again normally. Any ideia?

[niloc]

I'm guessing that what you're saying is the oil pressure light flashes sometimes, even with the engine off? If so, I would check the wire that goes to the sensor - If it gets grounded, the light will come on. Perhaps the insulation melted when you had the fire, and is intermittantly touching the engine/bodywork.
As for the starting problem, we need more infomation - does it happen when the engine is cold, does the starter operate, does it try and start?