Ok.....As I filled my coolant in the tank I noticed that there are 2 tubes coming out of it. the front one goes to the front - radiator (i think). Is the one behind that supposed to be cut? Mine just comes out of the tank & aims downward......Is that right? I'm getting worried now...thanks again

 

I've always wondered about the real differences between coolants. I know there are raging debates online about the qualities of different motor oils, but I can't recall a similar debate about coolant.

The 2003 Discovery Owner's Manual specifies Havoline Extended Life Coolant (XLC) or any ethylene glycol based anti-freeze (containing no methanol) with only Organic Acid Technology (OAT) corrosion inhibitors.

A quick web search finds that some newer coolants are made of propylene glycol instead of the ethylene glycol recommended by Land Rover.

I'm headed to the parts store today and was planning to just find some Havoline coolant as specified in the manual.

 

The cut tube is normal, that is your over flow tube.

 

I topped off the coolant yesterday and checked the plug Dave mentioned - there was coolant there. I ran the truck for 5-10 minutes and the coolant level didn't go down any more.

The most noticeable potential leak is (what I believe to be) the head gasket at the rear (U.S.) driver's side of the engine, especially between the arrows shown. There's some puddling in this area, and this is also the area directly over the cat, which is near where I heard drops of liquid falling onto the exhaust a few days ago:


The engine was cold when I checked it, and it really was that low - it took 2 quarts (I filled them slowly to let the oil reach the dipstick. I've been driving cars that don't lose any fluids for the past several years, so I have to get back in the habit of checking fluids more frequently.

I'll be checking fluids daily and will report back on any major findings - thanks for the help everyone!

 

Your arrows are pointing at the valve cover gaskets. The Head gasket is lower than that, right under the exhaust manifold.

Dexcool is the only coolant to use in D2s, and you cannot mix them with another. to bleed the air out of the system, you have to fill and lift the expansion bottle by taking it out of its attaching points and holding it as far up as it will go. I used bungee cords attached to the inner holes of the hood as attaching points to hold the bottle up. Then you unscrew the bleeding bolt. If there's air in there, you'll hear it. If there's none, only coolant will come out. As the coolant comes out, re-install the bleeding screw and re-install the bottle at its place. fill the the bottle up to level and recheck after a cool down after a drive.

It is possible that your head gasket leaks only on the outside of the block. That is my situation. In that case, after monitoring the possibility of coolant in the oil ( chocolate milk shake like goo on the dipstick), the presence of oil in the coolant (obvious oil on top of the coolant in the bottle), or coolant and oil in the combustion chamber( white or black smoke coming out of the exhaust on start-up and when driving), if none of those situation appears, the Head Gasket replacement can wait a little if you keep monitoring the coolant and oil level and the other situation described above.

darover

 

Sounds like it is head gasket time. You can verify it by having your coolant system pressure tested to verify the leak.
I would suggest you start looking around for an estimate to do the head gaskets other then the possible head work, mainly resurfacing of the heads. I recently had mine replaced and paid $1420 which included all Rover replacement parts including gaskets and head bolts, I supplied the oil and filter because I like to run a certain combination.
If you have seconday air, they may charge a little more labor, if your heads are warped out around .004 or more thy will need to be resurfaced, usually around $100 and don't let them try and sell you a valve job, your truck shouldn't need one till up around 200K.

 

Update: The service department at the used car dealer who sold us the truck did a pressure check of the cooling system and found no leaks, nor was there any sign of coolant in the oil or vice versa. They did replace the valve cover gaskets (at no charge to us, even though we purchased the truck as is - they seemed to agree that they should have caught that in the pre-purchase inspection).

So the good news is everything seems to check out fine cooling system wise and we have new valve cover gaskets at no charge. The bad news is we still can't figure out how we're losing so much coolant (I've now "topped off:" almost a liter of coolant/water mix in the past week, including about 1/4 liter after driving the truck home last night).

I'm also still a bit concerned that we've added 2 quarts of oil in the month we've owned the truck, but we've driven it about 2000 miles in that time (it has about 73,000 miles now). Is 1 quart of oil every 1000 miles unheard of for a Discovery with this kind of mileage? I can't imagine a valve cover gasket leaking that much oil, and there are no signs of oil leaks elsewhere on the engine, but then again this is my first experience maintaining a Britsh vehicle

Thanks!

 

You need a second option, have some one else do a pressure test, your coolant has to be going some where and the dealer probably didn't find the leak cause then they knew you would expect some sort of financial help in fixing it.

 

This dealer has a very good reputation (and they volunteered to pay for the work they did; I didn't have to ask), so I'm tempted to believe they did their best to find the problem and just couldn't figure it out (they've never dealt with a Land Rover before; this was a trade in). On the other hand, cooling systems aren't rocket science, so I'd texpect any competent mechanic to able to figure out where so much coolant is going.

I've done a lot of minor mechanical work to my cars over the years (breakes, tuneups, shocks) but haven't done much with cooling systems. I suspect there's a fairly limited number of causes for coolant loss:
- bad head gasket/cracked head
- crack in hoses/clamps/resevoir
- bad heat exchanger

Are there any potential causes for lost coolant that wouldn't show up on a pressure test?

Our next visit will be to a local Land Rover expert....

Thanks

 

It's a sealed, closed-loop system so the pressure test should catch any leaks. However, I have seen one situation where a cylinder head gasket breach between the water jacket anda cylinder would onlyleak while the engine was running. The suction of the piston going down on the intake stroke was enough to cause the coolant to be sucked into the cylinder, but it didn't show up on a pressure test. It was an '87 Honda Accord and when we pulled the head, it was warped and there was clear evidence of the gasket leaking. We were losing about a quart of coolant a week while driving it.

Dave