Give a border collie a ball and he’ll try to herd it. Show Scrum Coetzee a ball and he wants to fall on top of it. He’s played so many rugby matches that initiating a ruck is the first thing that comes to his mind.
We service his 10-year-old Honda regularly and, at the last service, Scrum mentioned that the engine runs hotter than it used to, no matter what speed he’s doing. This eliminated the cooling fan as a culprit because a fan is needed only up to about 80 km/h.
Japie started his examination by looking at the overflow bottle. It was full, so he decided that there’s no point in looking for a water leak. Instead, he inspected the radiator fins to make sure they were not clogged and suggested to Syd that perhaps he should remove the thermostat and check its operation.
Syd responded by saying that a full overflow bottle is not definite proof that the radiator is full. Scrum may have recently filled the bottle. He checked the radiator water level and found it so low that he could hardly see any water.
This explained the overheating, but presented a new mystery. Why did the radiator not suck water from the bottle as it cooled down?
Japie was mystified, but Syd suspected a leaking radiator cap. This would prevent the water from creating a partial vacuum as it cooled down.
He inspected the cap and found that old age had severely affected the sealing material underneath. A replacement was ordered and two days later the Honda was back to normal.
