On my way to work, I noticed some steam coming from the hood. I opened the hood and saw a bad coolant leak from the throttle body heater plate. I bypassed the throttle body heater plate until I get a part in on Friday. I was low on coolant, so I was driving ~1 mile to the nearest auto shop to get more and top off. At the stop light, I thought the car was overheating, as the temp gage was at cold, but the red light next to it came on. I turned off the engine at the stoplight to avoid further overheating and get to the auto part store across the street. I could not refire when I tried turning it back on. I opened the hood and noticed that the compressor connector was not plugged in. I plug this back in and try again, but that made it worse. The car would not jump start. It would crank but not ignite. We already checked the fuses and made sure the throttle body got fuel. The plugs, wires and coils were replaced 2 weeks ago. I took a plug out and it was wet with fuel b/c the engine was flooded, but this may be due to trying to start it too many times and giving it a little bit of throttle when trying to crank it. I have functioning headlights, radio and dash, but they flash when I try to crank. Could the unplugged wire throw an error code? There were no error codes before I shut engine off other than the red light and SRS warning. I'm going to replace battery (it is now pretty dead and makes clicking sound) and plugs. I did a spark test and there was spark enough to backfire on me. Any other ideas?
Car: 2003 Land Rover Discovery II

 

Whoa, sounds like a mess. First off I would not bother fixing the throttle body warmer, just button up your bypass. The throttle body heater is the weakest link in the cooling system and its not a question of if it will fail again just when..

Here is my theory:

Your throttle body heater has been leaking for a while and the coolant has soaked your crank position sensor over time and today the heater and the crank position sensor let go, that could be half the problem. Depending on how long your temp gauge has been inoperative you could have been driving around cooking that motor and had no idea.

Another thing you can try is hitting that inertia switch. Stranger things have happened with these motors.

 

The temp sensor was only inoperative for the ~1 mile drive to the auto parts store to get coolant. The throttle body is getting fuel, as it was tested with brake cleaner and the spark plugs were wet with gasoline (this was probably due to giving it a little gas when trying to crank it).

 

If you have spark at spark plugs, then crank position sensor is working & not broke,

 

When you over heat the motor to an extreme level the temp sensor goes to blue while the light is on. Not sure if you caught the needle going up, but when it does you are already over 235. Any driving after the needle budges is detrimental to your engine.

Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you probably have a blown HG or worse a cracked block