Hello! New to the forum and a new landrover owner. I just bought a 1998 landrover disco 1. It has 214000 kms on it. When i bought the vehical it seemed to run great except for the brakes needdd to be done. I replaced the brakes, filled it up with gas, went through the carwash and then started my 1.5 hr journey home. I made it about 15kms down the highway and stopped to check on everything (i was super paranoid after all the reading i did on landrovers and overheating). The temperature that day was about 25 degrees celcius and humid so it was very warm. When i shut the rover off to check everything out the cooling fans infront of the rad kept running which concerned me a bit but the temp gauge looked good so i waited a bit and started driving again. Not even a minuet down the road and my rover shuts off completely giving me power but no startup. Temp gauge was still fine at this point but even the hood was to hot to touch. I ended up towing it home because i didnt want to risk overheating if thats what it was. Its a month later now and i just changed the thermostat and waterpump, new battery and flushed the rad completely and replaced the green coolant with the orange dexcool ( thats what the landrover dealership told me to do). So i fired it up yesterday and it ran beautifully. I took it for a test drive into town and back and about 20 mins in my temp gauge went from regular to beyond hot in about a half a second. I imediatly shut off the engine and popped the hood. The engine itself was cool to the touch but the water pump and alternator were extremely hot. I let it sit for 10-15 mins then started creeping my way home. I made it about another 10 mins down the road before the temp gauge spiked again and i had to shut it off. It also seems like it is weeping coolant from where the thermostat is or somewhere close to that. I ended up getting my boyfriend to tow me home with a rope and now it sits in the yard again. Im stumped. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

get rid of the dexcool asap.

 

Did the dealership tell me wrong? Why would the dexcool overheat my alternator AND waterpump? Whats the differance between the dexcool and the regular antifreeze?

 

just google land rover discovery dexcool, and read up on it, it wouldnt cause the overheating issues but it will cause problems down the road.

 

If the temp spikes that fast I’d bet you have air in the cooling system. There’s a few methods to getting it out. It’s almost mandatory after changing coolant. Just do some searching here, there’s tons of posts on it.

 

well that sucks! I just spent like 50 bucks on coolant to replace it with dexcool. I guess the guy at landrover dealership was just trying to get me off the phone lol. Ill switch that back i guess and then do some research on bleeding the air out of the cooling system then update what happens. Im travelling 1.5 hrs to work on it as its stuck in the next town over from me so my responses will be delayed a bit. Might give it a shot tommorow though. Thanks guys!

 

The fan clutch is between the water pump and the fan. Did you replace that as well? If not I recommend you do, the mileage on your vehicle suggests it's time. The way to check the fan is to get the motor to operating temp and turn off the motor, try to spin the fan by hand, it should resist. If it spins one revolution or more then it's bad.

 

One other note while my brain is still working. If the top radiator hose has been replaced, and I’m sure it has, they often come quite a bit too long. They’ll fit okay and look good but they tend to rise up in the middle part of the hose and create a high spot where I swear air gets trapped. It befuddled me for some time until I realized it and trimmed SEVERAL inches off the engine side of the hose which allowed me to bring the hose lower. If you look at your truck from the front and you’ll notice if it looks too high or not. After I did that and followed a good solid bleed procedure I never experienced the super rapid temp jumps again. Good luck!

 

"Did the dealership tell me wrong?"
The local dealers around me dont know jack about these older Rovers - I have found this forum's users to be far more knowledgeable - FYI

If you alt is really hot - possible bad bearings and unrelated to coolent - if you take off the belt the alt should spin easy and continue spinning if you give it a good go - otherwise the bearings may be toast - thats what happened to mine

 

Might also budget for an Ultra-Gauge or equivalent. The temp gauge in the truck not that dependable. Needle on dash will stay in the same spot while UG shows 160 to 212 deg F.