Beeping while driving but no alarm lights on

[newuser]

Hi Everybody,

I am really glad i found this site while 'googling' for advise. I've thumbed through the older posts and couldn't find suggestions for my problems. I am really hoping someone here could help me out.

I have 2005 206cc 1.6 L petrol. I love this car but I have been having so much trouble with it recently. Here is what happened.
- Last week the air conditioner stopped working and I got the gas topped up.
- Two days later, I noticed the temperature gauge was higher than normal. Its normally around 90 deg C. It now gets to a 100 or 110 with a half hour drive. So I checked the coolant and topped up the coolant reservoir. It didn't seem to help much and the temperature gauge is still higher than normal.
- The car doesn't start up while hot. (I have seen posts on here regarding the start up motor, so thats something that I will get fixed).
- Now, I also get a small vibration on the steering wheel at speeds above 30 km/h. Further, I got a beeping with no alarm / warning lights on. The beeping stops when the car is not moving. The car troubles seem to continue.

I am hoping I could get some advise on what could be the root cause of all this. I am assuming all these issues are inter-related as all the issues seem to be cropping up one after the other.

Thanks in advance for your time and consideration.

Cheers!

[newuser]

PS. Forgot to add that I bought the car last year at 110,000 km and I have clocked another 14,000 over the past year.

[Capncol]

Hi Newuser and welcome .
Temp gauge may be reading wrong, or it may actually be overheating, in which case that may have a bearing on your hot start problem. Either way, you need to acertain which, and fix accordingly. I use an infrared thermometer aimed at the engine where the top hose exits the engine (thermostat housing) to read the actual coolant temp.

The hot start issue. Does the engine turn over or not?

Vibration on steering wheel could be wheel balance or a misshapen tyre. Try swapping the front wheels over with the back ones. Roll the wheels along and look for any bulges, bald patches or lumps in the tyre casing.

The beeping could be roof related or handbrake. Does the brake warning light go off when h/brake released?
Put the roof down and back up making sure you get the confirmation bongs at the end of each open/close movement.

[robertj]

hi in the past couple of weeks same things happened to me beeping
sound found to be anti pollution fault it was fixed but has to go back to garage as its beeping again with the fault though engine management light on dash board comes on

[newuser]

Thank you for the response. I finally took it in to the dealers. And i came back with a list of things to be fixed. The temperature issue turned out to be a leak in the radiator housing. Further, they found a leak in the steering fluid and they recommend that the steering assembly be replaced. In addition, the engine mounting and gearbox mounting also needs to be replaced. To add to it, they think that there might be a leak in the air conditioner too. Further, they also suspect that the start up motor might needs to be replaced with regards to the hot start issue. Also, they replaced the alternator as I had a battery charger fault. What a day! Perhaps its time to junk this car and look for other options!! How can there be so many issues with a car that was driving fine a couple weeks ago?

Capncol - Appreciate your suggestion. The beeping issue stopped with i put the roof down and back up as suggested.

[GrandadMonkey]

When cars start to go wrong and are 7 years old it is quite a judgement call. You could spend £1,000 now to put the car right and end up with a reliable motor again for another 7 years with expenditure limited to normal routine servicing. Or more things may go wrong.

I made a decision 4 years ago when a small problem started with my Merc C280 that, as it was going to start costing me money in repairs I would change it immediately. Looking back it was the best decision I could have made. Replaced it with the Golf Estate. Look what has happened to fuel prices - it has saved me a fortune in fuel alone - and no costly repairs.

Our 206cc is 7 years old now too. It has been ultra reliable. However the cambelt and water pump will need replacing within the next 3 years. It will need tyres too soon as the originals are still on it. So if it did start to go wrong (which I hope it doesn't because it is well looked after) I think we would replace it for a much newer car. Trouble is what the heck would we choose???

[newuser]

Thank you, GrandadMonkey. I totally agree that the 206 cc is a beautiful car when everything is running right. I think I might do away with it giving the number of things I have to fix - starter motor, steering rack assembly, leaking A/c, leaking radiator housing etc.

The prices for original parts at the dealers in the middle east are just exorbitant. Unless I can find chinese spares, I would end up paying almost the current value of the car

Any thoughts on finding cheap parts and DIY given that I have no clue how cars work yet.