Vehicle Cooling

Cooling

It is imperative that the cooling equipment on the Lotus Carlton & Omega is functioning correctly. The cooling circuits consists of four major components. The chargecooler, used for cooling the induction air, the auxiliary fan, for cooling the radiator, auxiliary water pump, and the viscous fan. Above all, remove the cap from the header tank and make sure the water has no oil in it.

Chargecooler

There are no major parts relating to the chargecooler that can fail but ensure that the rotor for the chargecooler pump has been changed every 18,000 miles or 30,000 km. Another item to check is the coolant level in the chargecooler itself, if the level is too low, the indicator on the left hand side of dashboard instruments will illuminate and stay illuminated when the ignition is on.

Auxiliary Electric Fan

The auxiliary electric fan should be on under three conditions; when there is an engine management fault, the air-conditioning is on or the water temperature is above 97°C. Ensure that the fan activates when the coolant switch for the air-conditioning is turned on and the water temperature rises above 97°C. If this fan is not working correctly, premature head gasket failure can occur.

Viscous Fan

As is common to other Carltons and the Senator, the viscous fan often fails. Make sure that the viscous fan is functioning by performing the 'Carrot Test'. Take a carrot along and place this in the path of the viscous fan when it is rotating, if the carrot is sliced, the fan has failed, it should be stopped. More often than not, the fan fails the other way and never spins. If this is the case, premature head gasket failure can occur.

Auxiliary Water Pump

The auxiliary water pump can be found just in side the left hand turret top (looking from the front of the car) and looks like a 1 ½ inch wide cylinder. It is unlikely that this does not work but the associated vacuum circuitry can fail. The pump will activate when the water temperature rises above 93°C or when there is an engine management fault. In the situation when the water temperature is above 93°C and the engine is NOT running, you should see water being pumped back in to the top of the header tank.

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