Well, once again, the Land Rover Gods have jumped up and bitten me in the behind. I have a 2001 DII with 92k miles on it. I bought it a couple of years ago with about 72k miles on it. The head gaskets had been done by a very reputable shop in the San Diego area at 65k miles about 14 months before I bought the truck. Ever since I have owned it I have had some issues with bleeding the cooling system. The issue has been getting progressively worse. To make matters more complicated, my kids are using the truck while they are in college in Utah. I am in San Diego.

Well, we tried about every trick to bleed the system. No luck. Thanks Disco Mike for all of your patience! I finally found a shop that had the vacuum equipment to pull all of the air out of the system. Worked great, held vacuum for an hour. Filled it back up and started her up, almost immediately had the waterfall going again. The shop tested for exhaust gas in the coolant and viola, head gasket. I flew to Utah over the weekend and took it to a shop in the Salt Lake City area by the name of Roverland. They came highly recommended, they had done work on my sister's Discovery, including head gaskets and had treated her very fairly.

Truck was running great, after a brief rough idle on startup after sitting more than an hour or so. It threw the occasional code, mostly P0301, but the occasional P0303 and on at least one occasion P1300. After some diagnostics, and the conclusion that it was most likely a head gasket, the shop pulled the driver's side head. Sure enough, a major gasket failure between cylinders 1 and 3. Thankfully, no block or liner problems. Heads are on the way to be surfaced and to have a valve job (cheap insurance while they are at the machine shop eventhough the truck only has 92k miles on her). $80 to surface, a pair and $225 for a full valve job for the pair. The guy at the shop told me that it did not look like the heads had ever been machined before. I checked the invoice for the first head gakstet job and couldn't find any reference for machining. Dang! Always machine the head if you are going to all of the trouble of a head gasket job!

The shop should have it all back together by Friday, new magnecores are on order, along with a new thermostat, throttle body kit and plugs, along with any other misc. parts that go along, new coolant and an oil change.

This is my second head gasket job in four months! Our 2000 was done in November. Although, the price in San Diego was surprisingly less that what I am going to pay in Utah, go figure! (the 2001 does have secondary air injection, the 2000 does not) $1200 in San Diego and $1400 in Utah. We will see how much it turns out to be out the door.

So far, my experience with Roverland Utah has been very positive. Looks like a very good shop with large clean space and all the necessary Rover specific scanners, testbook, etc.

Thanks for all of the posts by the unfortunate ones that proceeded me. I do feel for you poor folks that live in cold weather. I was out swapping a heater hose in the snow on Monday morning. Not exactly like San Diego! Although it was fun driving in snow last night on the way to drop it off at the shop, we don't get too much of that here in So Cal.

I do plan on having the shop dump the Dexcool and use good old green coolant with the new head gaskets!

Let you all know how she is running on Friday, at least what the kids tell me. This long distance Rover ownership is for the birds!

Phil

2000 DII
2001 DII

 

Just curious... the shop put dexcool in after the first HG job?
Anyhow, glad you found a reputable shop that won't take advantage of you. Hope they get everything straightened out and you have many miles of trouble-free D2 ownership!

Eric

 

Yes, I had the same thought. I did get the ownership/repair records from the previous owner. I was surprised that the throttle body heater plate/gasket was not replaced at the time of the head gasket repair. The PO took it in within a few months of the head gasket repair for the throttle body gasket replacement. $200 for that repair alone! They had paid around $2400 for the head gasket job! That did not include, nor did they do any machining.

By the way, the throttle body gasket is leaking right now (It was three years ago and only 25k miles and it is leaking again), it will be fixed with the head gaskets. I do know that the dexcool has been changed at least once since then.

Is it worth changing the expansion tank cap as a precaution since the other work is being done anyway? It seems to be working fine, but......any thoughts?

Phil

2000 DII
2001 DII

 

I changed my expansion cap. Piece of mind... especially after seeing the condition of everything under the hood when I bought mine. You know murphy's law... you don't replace it and it will fail. I think it's only $20.

Eric

 

Well, the shop got my head gasket changed out. Complete valve job, new magnecore wires, plugs, thermostat, heater hoses, oil change. Paid over the phone and my daughter picked up the truck, 2 miles from the shop she calls to say the temp gauge is climbing. I tell her to pull over and call the shop, I am in San Diego and the shop and truck are in Utah. She called the shop and the owner told her it was probably just an electrical issue and that she was good to go. Well, 10 miles down the road, the truck is toast. Engine seized, coolant and oil all over the engine compartment and all over the I-15. Good shop did the work. I fully expect them to stand behind their work. Hope that they have a good source for a new block. Damn these trucks, I should have stuck with the Toyota. These things are pieces of crap. I know, don't flame me. They take more work and effort than any vehicle I have ever owned. I don't trust them to drive to the gas station, which I do every 12 mpg. Unreal. Even a quality Rover specific shop can't get it right. What a day.

 

WTF?!
Over the phone? What a dumbass.
I would never tell a customer that. If for no other reason than I have no desire to buy someone an engine.

 

My reaction would have been to pull over, which she did, on the side of the main freeway in Salt Lake, the I-15 in rush hour traffic. She is a 21 year old college student. However, she is well educated on watching for dash lights and uncommon sounds out of the truck. She called me, crying. I told her to call the shop and have them come get her. At the time she was a couple of miles from the shop. I too called the shop. The guy, whom is very nice by the way, told me that he was talking to my daughter on the other line and that everything was under control. He asked her some questions and evidently determined that it must have been a loose connection and that the truck was running fine. He then sent her on her way. I talked to her and she confirmed what he had told her. She pulled back into the traffic lanes and went on her way, about another 10 or 15 miles when all hell broke loose. Engine started growling and spewing its ugly bile, disgorging its life sustainging Peak Coolant and Mobil 1. Long story short, when the tow truck driver showed up, it was still smoking and cracking, not STEAMING, smoking. oil, coolant all over the engince compartment and the new concrete emergency lane of the I-15. My poor daughter. Scared of pulling over on the freeway, twice, the second time in the middle of a construction zone with very limited shoulder area, in rush hour traffic and having to call her dad whom has instructed all of his kids, "never never drive with the gauge in the hot, pull over immediatelyl." Well, hopefully I can reach the shop owner today and get this resolved. In any event, I am probably going to have to drive the Land Cruiser up to Utah and give to the kids to drive for the next couple of weeks (one of my sons just had knee reconsrtruction last week and is hobbling around campus on crutches).

I suspect when I hook the Innova 3130 scanner to this thing I am going to get a few codes........ones that I haven't seen before.

I looked online last night for replacement motors....wow, they are not cheap. Anyone with experience with the remanufactured motors out of Turner in England or any locations here in the states, please chime in. Other than the head gaskets, the motor that is in truck was in amazing shape, records since new, even the mechanic mentioned he was amazed on how clean the inside of the engine was, I guess the Mobil 1, Mobile 1 301 oil filters and 3,000 mile oil changes were good for something, thanks Disco Mike and all you other posters. I really don't want to just drop somebodyelse's problem motor into my truck. They are bad enough when they have been well maintained and murder when they have been neglected.

Well, the sun is coming up, surf is up and I think I am going to go surf and clear my mind. After that, gas up the Land Cruiser (I would take them my 2000 Discovery, but eventhough it is running great, I just don't trust it and right now I don't won't another problem 750 miles away without a shop I can rely on) and take the 11 hour drive up the I-15 to Provo. Someday I am going to look back and laugh at this, right now, it is a pain the butt. Land Rovers, not just transportation, a lifestyle. This in not how I envisioned spending my weekend.

all the best. Phil

 

Wow, sorry about your luck.
I highly doubt the shop will do anything, over the phone its a "he said she said" $7500 scenario.
Best of luck and please keep us posted.

 

WOW, that is a raw deal. I'd be curious what actually happened. To be honest with you, if it was my shop and I got a call from a customer who just left like that I would say leave it shut off, I'll be there in 5 minutes with a tow truck... geesh.

 

Wow man that is a bunch of crap. I can't believe he told her it was an electrical problem. Especially since this was a land rover shop, they above all people should know it was an "Oh ****" situation. Sounds like he was tired of working on it. They better replace the motor. Even if it's a he said she said scenario there is still proof in the pudding that somewhere this engine f'ged up. Both parties admit that the truck was very well maintained. It couldn't be coincidence that another problem arose right after you had all this service done. Then again we are dealing with Land Rovers.