Vehicle & Technical > Discovery

Coolant loss

(1/4) > >>

muddyjames:
I seem to be forever topping my coolant up.

After about 300 miles I have to put about a litre or 2 back into the resvior.  :twisted:  

I had issues towing a twin axle van last week up hills where the disco temp kept getting very close to being in the red and also the water was boiling big style.

I flushed the system through with a hose yesterday by taking off the plugs above the thermostat and also the top of the rad and the resevior bottle and bung the hose in. The water was very brown for some reason.

There is no bubbling in the water when it is running except for when the thermostat kicks in which I guess is just the water suddenly going through the system and then it stops after a few seconds to a swirling motion. When I 1st bought the car there was a slight oily residue on top of the water but that has all stopped now.

I have put 2 litres of anti freeze in as I dont think it had much in the other day. I know it needs 6 litres in to get the recomended 50/50 solution like the hand book says but at £5 a litre for anti freeze they can run and jump. Also I cant work out where to drain the whole system so I cant get any more anti freeze in before it gets to the top of the max thing inside the bottle.

Any ideas where the water is going? I do have an oil seel leek which is coming out of the wading plug. could it be leeking through that as well? I very much doubt it but worth asking.

Also when I took the waing plug out of the auto box hole I had a few drips of water come out but I guess that is just condensation. It was literaly only a few drips.

Tyke:
'P' gasket at back of accessory bracket is the usual culprit.

muddyjames:
I shall have to question my little landy mechanic man when I next see him. Oh he is going to love me when I give him the list of jobs to do. Im looking at 1k's worth of work  :shock:

Tyke:
If it's the p-gasket, I did mine for £1:28p plus a couple of hours messing about with the spanners. Make sure they fit the latest metal one and not an older paper one or will go again.

The leak is that fine that pressurising the cooling system did not show any leak and I was told by a local garage mechanic that it would probably be a new head gasket job.

You can usually see where it's been leaking if you poke about at the front of the block just above the alternator where the joint face is for the acessory bracket, use a torch to brighten the area up a bit. Mine was rust stained but once found it was very obvious.

If you have other jobs to do that are going to a mechanic i'd get them to check out what I say or you may end up with a new head gasket and still not cure the leak. I went to the local land rover shop prepared to buy all the bits to sort the head and that's when the mechanic pointed out that this was most likely the problem and nothing to do with the head gasket.

He was right and that saved me a lot of money and messing about.

muddyjames:
the guy i take my disco too is fantastic. £25an hour labour, he saves you money where he can (will give example in a mo) and also phones up every evening to give an update on how work is going.

I bought my disco and then 200 miles later I found the alternator pulley had come loose and put the engine timing out a bit.

It went on a low loader to him and he did the whole work for me for £700. that was take old pulley of, re do timing, re build the crank shaft (he said if that didnt work he has a 2nd hand spare or I could buy a new one for £800  :shock:  If it had gone anywhere else I am sure that it would have been a 2k bill and a new crank shaft etc etc and certainly not the same kind of service my chap provides.

He has even offered to get the train down to me and pick my disco up for him to do the work as long as I pay his train fare. He wont charge me for the time it takes him to pick it up. He lives an hour and a half from me. Soon it will be 10min as I have bought a house VERY close to him :D

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page