overheating when towing

furthrt to my previous thread my diesel d22 overheats when towing is ok any other time .has anyone got any ideas
cheers phil

Hey Phil, you're a local, you ought to come on a run with us some day!

Mate the car is probably sensitive to airflow. I asked Nissan if I could put some mesh in behind the grill to stop the larger bugs being wedged in there and they told me that I'd cause the thing to overheat. Seems like the thing is built with a fine tolerance - like the cooling system is only just good enough to keep the thing at normal temperature and any slight variation causes the thing to have a problem.

We discovered that on the "Silver City Highway" south of Broken Hill, there was a steady climb in >40C heat and when I put my foot down a little too hard, the temp started rising.

I think we had reached the point where air resistance + towing drag > engine's ability. I backed off to under 100km/h and the temp dropped again.

Tell us about the front of your rig - any large driving lights, mesh bug screens, winch etc? Under what conditions does your temperature start rising - in terms of speed, incline etc?

Is your condensor full of mud ?

Whats the engine fan like to turn by hand ?

Dave.

has got the ipf lights on bull bar as fitted by dealer has had new radiator and condensor is clear of crap it over heats towing at around 80 kays on a cool day
cheers phil

What age is it ?

Have you had it compression tested ?

A leak down test wouldn't hurt either.

Dave.

fan has some resistance when turned by hand it does it at any speed on flat ground as well
cheers phil

it is 03 model has been pressure tested with no loss of pressure
cheers phil

Ever had the injector pump off ? Just thinking the timing could be out.

Its a wierd one, I have never seen the temp gauge in mine move above half.

Dave.

pump hasnt been off to my knowledge it is bloody annoying as i bought itmainly
to tow my caravan as it has 3000kg towing capacity so far it lokks like i made a mistake
cheers phil

How many km's and whats the service history like ?

Taken it to a diesel specialist ?

Dave.

has 148ks all services have been done havent had to diesel specialist as yet
cheers phil

it has 148ks all services done havent had to diesel specialist
cheers phil

Have you downloaded the service manual ?

Dave.

no havent downloaded service manual is there a hint in it
cheers phil

There must be something to fin wrong in it even if it is minor. I have an 06 (05 built) ST-R ZD30 with factory alloy bullbar and 150mm driving lights on it.

I mainly tow a race car at about 17-1800 KG on the trailer plus maybe a bit more for tools and I have pushed it along pretty solidly even on 35 degree days on hills with the air con running and never had the gauge move off its normal spot.

I do know of one bloke who had a faulty thermostat that made his R31 Skyline behave as you are describing, it fouled a housing when opening which would let it open a little but when you put the ask on it the sticky spot stopped it opening fully and up the temp went until you backed off it again.

thermostat was first thing replaced it made no difference so replaced radiator
am thinking off wiring thermo fan to seperate switch so it can be used if ac not on hoping it might help
cheers phil

The fan should have some resistance, that's normal. The real test will be whether or not the fan actually does enough work. It might turn over, but it has to turn over enough.

What's your fuel consumption like? It might not be a dragging brake as after a while you'd expect to see smoke and you really should be able to smell that when you stop, but let's check anyway.

Are your front tyres wearing smoothly or are they heavily "corrugated", especially on the outside edges?

no brake smell getting around 650 to tank also checked mfor slipping clutch
cheers phil

650km isn't bad and I'd suggest that we're not looking at a drag issue. It might be injector timing or the thermo fan isn't working well enough.

ive got 240 light force driving lights 1200lb ironman winch arb bull bar tow a 1500kg give or take ive towed in 35 plus and never had the temp move at all
hope you find the problem mate