Yeah would be a waste.

It doesnt really matter where you would turn it on, but a switch is useful for sitting in traffic as we all know that needle climbs when sitting stationary. It would probably be best to keep it just above the 90 mark, but as long as you are away from the red you should be fine.

yeah was thinking of fitting a switch to the fan..

when's the best time to switch it on? i know a fella with a 1.7tds astra the bubble one and he has his wired up to be on constantyl, which i think is a bit silly. That would be some drain on the battery and in turn on fuel consumption would it not?

Your fan should kick in not far from the red. They really do leave it to the last minute which is why so many people fit switches to them

what temp id the fan supposed to kick in? cause i was driving back form a 200 mile round trip and the temp was sitting at around half way and i stopped somewhere and the fan hadent kicked in the whole time ... so i got home took the pipe off the bottom of the rad, drained it, filled it with a mix of water and antifreeze/coolant and changed the cap to another one i had and its been 100% now , went to change the thermo stat and the one thay gave me was the wrong one so they have to send me out a new one. havent tried the heater yet as the heat here has been unreal there for the last while... lol

The temp gauge going over 90 degrees is normal, the thermostat usually only fully opens at about 92 degrees. If it's only occasionally going over 90 degrees then you may have a faulty thermostat.

The losing water part, leaks on the cooling system are only usually noticable when the engine's running and the system is pressurised which forces the water out.

The losing water and the heater may suggest a leak somewhere around the heater matrix which may have caused an airlock in the heater matrix hence why it goes cool.

??

anyone any suggestions?

while i was out last nite i was talking to a fella i know and hes a mechanic but also was drunk at the time and i was telling him about a the heating problem i have in my 1.7 diesel 96 B..

when i turn it on it will stay hot for about a min and then blow cold.. now from reading other stuff on here i thought head gasket cause its heating up a wee bit over the 90degrees on the temp clock and i said this to him and he said that he wouldnt of thought it was that straight away.

he said it could be the rad on the car that there could be a hole in it etc and this could also be the reason for the heating not working properly and it over heating slightly. I aslo said to him that i've notticed that i had to put water in it a couple of times and i cant see where the water is going as the oil level doesn't seem to be rising :boggle: he said that witht the pressure and the car over heating slightly the water could be blowing out somewhere that you wouldnt see and that would explain it..

someone also said to me that it could be the thermostat that could be the problem..

can anybody help me out on this please?

many thanks