My daughter has a 2000 DII that I purchased for her a couple months ago. The temp gauge hit red the other night about 5 minutes after a cold start. She parked it and then checked the coolant the next day. It was about 2 gallons low. After filling it back up, there has not been any more cooling issues and the coolant level has not changed. I am thinking it is a thermostat issue. No leaks have been found. I have checked multiple threads on all the possible leaks. Now yesterday after another cold start, the service engine light has come on. Any suggestions? She is about 4 hours away so it is hard for me to go down and take a look at it. She is just about at 100,000 miles. Based on the CarFax report the radiator was replaced at 23,000 and the Computer was replaced at 34,000.

 

You might want to send me your tele number, and from one grand father to a father, you have problems.
In the mean time do not have her drive it.

 

Her truck only hold approx. 3 gallons of coolant, so if it was down two gallons you either have a leak or the truck needs head gaskets.

She should not drive it until the problem is located.

The first thing she need to do is have the truck preasure tested to 20 psi, and checked for leaks. You cant find a leak unless it is under preasure; unless it is massive.
If after 30 minutes under preasure no leak can be found (ie. it still has 20 psi) you can chaulk it up to poor maintenance or a bad radiator cap.
But if it loses any preasure at all, it has a leak. common areas to look the water pump, all hoses & clamps, and the throttle body heater.

The preasure test can be done by any garage they do not have to specialize in Land Rovers, a leaking hose or waterpump is the same in a Land Rover as a chevy.

You did not say where she lives some of the members may be near or know of a garage in the area that she can use.

But she is at that golden mark of 100k, where head gaskets are a real possibility if not today in the future. Also at 100k unless you know better she should have all the hoses, thermostat & coolant replaced as a percaution.

 

1. That much coolant loss is a concern. Could be loose hose clamp, etc. She needs to check twice daily until resolved.

2. What she can do for dear old Dad, the human ATM, is go to a big auto parts store, they will read the codes and she can report back to you with the number, NOT WHAT THEIR READER THINKS IT EQUALS (which is sometimes off a bit).

3. Would have her be sure coolant is at proper level when cold. She may not understand how to bleed air from the system afer new coolant installed, half the guys on this forum fiddle with it.

4. Park truck where leaks can easily be seen (not on grass or gravel), and let it idle for 20 minutes of so, AC OFF (don't want condensate forming). Watch for any water on ground, and any white smoke (head gasket) from exhaust after first five minutes. One thing that could leak that level, without being a head gasket (yes, I said those $1500 words!), is the water pump. About this age is good for that. Water will appear on the ground at the nose of the truck. A really bad one will have the fan pulley wobble, before it comes apart and gets the radiator. She can also watch under the hood at this time, long hair AWAY from moving parts, to see if any hoses are squirting. Water pump is $50 - $150 part plus an hour or so of labor.

5. If you were there, you could borrow a coolant pressure test kit form auto parts store and pump it up to 20 PSI for 20 mintes, looking for any leaks as you wiggle all the hoses. Being remote, you may have to locate a reasonable indy shop and arrange for a pressure test.

6. If you lost 2 gallons, it is likely you will continue to loose coolant. Please have her check it each day before driving, and top up to that center line on the coolant bottle. She can advise how much she is having to put in. Get her to buy a case of bottled water and carry in the back. For the moment, diluting the coolant with water is less important than knowing how hungry the leak is; you don't want her caught without water.

7. You may have dodged the bullet by her shutting it down. High heat can warp heads, blow head gasket, even cause more severe "replace engine" kind of damage.

8. All that said, perhaps your best course would be getting it into a local shop for a coolant pressure test, check for water in oil, etc. and the expense is off-set by eight hours of your time and gas for your war horse. Besides, if you drove down there, "you" would be taking her shopping, dinner, etc.

9. Most of the time the head gaskets cause more heat, and slower water loss. But she may have been driving thinking it was OK even though gauge was above 9:00. 9:30, 10:00, 11:00, hey we are still on the scale? No, we are above normal temp , and coolant may have been low for weeks. You will be most fortunate if turns out to be a bad hose connection or minor gasket.

10. Here's the layout of the D2 cooling system. Thermostat can make heat do strange things, but won't make 2 gallons of coolant evaporate. Stats are also special order usually, only one temp range, like $35 or a little more. Dad the ATM might want to consider a care package for the truck, with stat, belt, the odd hoses that are hard to find, proper oil filter, etc. So that if she has to have it worked on the correct parts are immediate, not wait two days. You can also download the entire RAVE tech manual and put on a USB drive to carry in the car, just in case.

11. This kind of coolant loss is not going away without treatment of some kind. The odds of operating the truck hot with no coolant and no damage are very very small. That indy shop is looking a lot better than an engine or head gaskets.