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[BigAl]

Hi Guys,

Couple of quick questions, a mate has a K reg Carlton club estate, over a year ago dopey neighbor left the handbrake off and her car ran into the passenger side of his Carlton badly denting the rear door and quarter panel, since then it's been abandoned on his drive.
I managed to jump-start it today and it started first time, left it to run to try a charge the battery but after about 25 minutes the temp was in the red and the front fan was running.

so questions, where to check for overheating issues and secondly is it worth sorting (cleaning and solve heating) and selling or should he just scrap it?

any help appreciated
Al

[Lizzie_Zoom]

Hi Guys,

Couple of quick questions, a mate has a K reg Carlton club estate, over a year ago dopey neighbor left the handbrake off and her car ran into the passenger side of his Carlton badly denting the rear door and quarter panel, since then it's been abandoned on his drive.
I managed to jump-start it today and it started first time, left it to run to try a charge the battery but after about 25 minutes the temp was in the red and the front fan was running.

so questions, where to check for overheating issues and secondly is it worth sorting (cleaning and solve heating) and selling or should he just scrap it?

any help appreciated
Al

When I had new Carlton's there were no issues with overheating, but on one we kept privately its thermostat needed replacing when it either would stay cold or stay hot!!

On those it was an easy job to replace the thermostat so within 15 I had done so.  No problems after that.

I would suspect though that after siting for a length of time the whole cooling system needs a wash out, as I know what came out of mine then even though it had been used (for over 107K miles) continually on business.

So in summary good wash out, with a change of the thermostat and all should be fine and make a good car to run (still miss them!).  But anything more expensive, then scrap is my advice

[Lizzie_Zoom]

By the way how old and what mileage is the Carlton? :-/

EDITED!!  Yes a K reg you said! Doh

[BigAl]

Cheers LZ  147K

any chance of a quick idiots guide:-
a:-Flushing through
b:-for changing the thermostat

reason - Its broken, i get a chance to play with spanners - worst case scenario - its still broken

many thanks

[Lizzie_Zoom]

Cheers LZ  147K

any chance of a quick idiots guide:-
a:-Flushing through
b:-for changing the thermostat

reason - Its broken, i get a chance to play with spanners - worst case scenario - its still broken

many thanks

Oh God, now you are asking!   It has been so many years since working on a Carlton   But here's goes.............

I certainly used to take the top and bottom hoses off the rad, then using a mains high pressure hose just keep pushing water into both openings.  Oh yes, and I used to remove the rad completely and flush that out, turning it upside down, back to front, etc!   I also flushed out the heater matrix, but I had to remove it in any case - yes a whole dash and surrounding area strip down - to replace on one occasion!

As for the thermostate if I remember correctly it was on the top right hand side of the engine with the main (?) hose entering  the thermostate cover, held on by 3 bolts.  I remember it was a very simple job to replace like any car I had worked on in that era, and much simplier than a Vx V6!!

Once flushed out, re-seal the system and add a 50/50 mix of Vx anti-freeze with water!  Job done!

Obviously a full oil and filter change is required, with all brakes being inspected, cleaned, and replaced if necessary.

I would certainly want to keep a 147K mile Carlton on the road as they are good well beyond 250K with good maintenence, and in anycase they are a lovely (classic to come) car.  Just ensure the rust devil is kept at bay, especially around those rear arches!!

I had to replace the fuel tank once as rust had amazingly built up to allow a pinhole to form and fuel to leak!

Apart from that they were just splendid cars, as of course the Senator was................ahhhhhhhhhhhhh

Have fun!

[BigAl]

Lizzie you are a star - many thanks for the guide   

[BigAl]

as expected,Lizzie was spot on - the thermostat had seized shut, but typical car mechanics- one off the bolts sheared off, will drill the bolt out later today and try the new unit

[Lizzie_Zoom]

as expected,Lizzie was spot on - the thermostat had seized shut, but typical car mechanics- one off the bolts sheared off, will drill the bolt out later today and try the new unit

Thank you for that, and thank goodness for that BigAl, as it had been so long since working on a Carlton, but your problem was typical of thermostate trouble.

Hope the flush out goes well and you get that Carlton back on the road 8-) 8-) 8-)

[Macduff]

I hope you get your Carlton back on the road they were really great cars.
 I still miss my CDXi, it was unfortunately a victim of the dreaded tin worm

[pedroMV6]

I missed this thread - but Lizzie had it covered.

You can flush and reverse flush the heater matrix by getting to the pipe connections on the left hand side of the engine bay (as you look at it from the front), behind the inlet manifold, by the bulkhead.

Also, with the thermostat out, run the hosepipe through the engine waterways too - might help a little!

[2woody]

as expected,Lizzie was spot on - the thermostat had seized shut, but typical car mechanics- one off the bolts sheared off, will drill the bolt out later today and try the new unit

I have a spare if you get stuck

[mudflap]

I owned a Carlton for ten years, the overheating issue was rectified with a replacement rad but i would have still liked an electric fan like the one fitted to Migs, mechanically she was fine but rust overtook minor niggles with locks and switches, it was only worth 250 GBP so was sent for scrap. Current scrap value was 50 pounds but decided to sell on ebay and got 160 pounds collected ...there is still a market for used spares but VX don't supply new panels cheaply.  :-?