Rover 200 & 400 Owners Club

Hi all,

As the title suggests I've got a problem with my cooling fan.

By way of background, I've recently replaced the head gasket. Everything is working fine, timing now set correctly, but the fan doesn't cut in when it gets hot.

The fan works, I've hard wired it to test.

I've tested the circuit with a test lamp and all seems ok.

I'm thinking it must now be the temperature sensor, but I'm not sure.

Any ideas?

The temp sensor sounds like a good bet. If you pull the plug off the sensor and connect the pins on the plug together then the fan should kick in - if it does then it's 99% certain that the sensor is at fault.

A 216 with a Honda engine must be quite an old car by now. If the head gasket went, there could be quite a bit of gunk in the engine.
Mate of mine had an Astra where he replaced the water pump, but still had overheating problems. I told him to try unscrewing the fan thermostat to see if it was dirty - he found about a half-inch of accumulated muck. He cleaned it off and it then worked fine.
I don't know if you can unscrew the fan thermostat on a 216, but if you can it's worth a look.