I think that my Rover is needing a new heater core. I noticed that the level in my coolant reserve bottle is low and I heard what I can best describe as a gurgling sound from the dash. I haven't noticed that coolant is leaking inside the cabin or on the ground under the truck. The lost coolant and the gurgling in the dash may not be connected but I am inclined to believe they are. Any ideas on how difficult this will be to fix?

 

It probably isn't the heater core, fill and bleed your coolant system to get rid of the gurgle, then have someone do a pressure test on the syetem. If your heater core were leaking, your carpet would be wet with coolant.

 

How do I bleed the cooling system?

 

Since you will need to locate the leak/pressure test, just take it to your mechanic and have him do it.
Let us know what they find.

 

Thanks for the advice Mike. Thinking that something could have gotten blown into the radiator and punctured it during the blizzard. 50+mph winds could have kicked up anything.

 

Many things can cause a gurgling sound in a a rover dash. Mine happened to be a blown driver side head gasket. It pumped combustion gasses into my coolant, which over pressurized the system, causing coolant to overflow from the reservoir cap. This loss in coolant was replaced by air, which got caught in my heater core, and gurgled like mad. Also, your coolant level may simply just be low. I agree with Mike in taking it to get pressure tested, and let them bleed it for you. If you decide to bleed it yourself, undo the reservoir cap, find a decently steep hill, drive up the hill partially, and park it. Leave it running. Let it idle for about 20-30 minutes, while massaging the hoses, (mainly top, and heater hoses). This will force the trapped air to float to the nose of the vehicle, and into the reservoir. After you are satisfied that you have bled the air. Drive it back down and fill the reservoir back to the required level if needed. Some folks will undo their resevoir from its mount and hang it from the hood to make it the highest point in the system. I didnt do this, and it turned out fine. Its up to you though. Good luck.

 

Well contrairy to popular belief cooling systems are not 100% sealed. Coolant loss overtime is normal. If your cooling system has not been serviced in a long time it could just be low.
Buy a gallon of premixed coolant, turn the heater on full heat fan on low, remove the coolant resevoir cap, top off the resevoir, start the truck with the heater on and let the truck idle until the heater lines are hot and you have good heat coming out of the vents.
Once a steady stream of steam comes out of the resevoir cap replace the cap, turn the truck off and you are good to go.
If it becomes low again then you have a problem.
Not to likely that the blizzard picked up anything, stuff cant fly around when it is covered by snow.

 

Just an update. Have spent the last couple days investigating to see if I could find the source of my coolant loss. I have found nothing definite but I am suspecting that it could something as simple as a failing water pump. To find out for certain the rover is going to JC Rovers here in Denver for a pressure test and hopefully repair.

 

Could just be low coolant, but those symptoms are consistant with a leaking headgasket. Check it regularly from now on. If you need to keep adding fluid to it and you don't see any leaks, that's what's happening. Smell in the resivour for combustion gasses while it's running ...look for bubbles that kind of thing. Another way to investigate is to remove your spark plugs. A vehicle with a leaking headgasket generally will have one plug (or two) that looks brand spanking new (cleaned from the steam). If you see that, it's where the leak is. Anyway, it's not thatdifficult to change a headgasket if it turns out to be that. Doesn't even take a lot of special tools. Just takes time.

 

I am getting a small leak on the ground while the engine is running making me believe that it is the water pump. If I had nothing on the ground I would be a lot more concerned about the situation. The slow drip is definitely coming from the front of the engine.