Hello All,

I have a 2003 DII, 70,000 miles.
I had a coolant drip happening every 10 seconds or so (pretty bad drip) coming from underneath and dripping right though the round plastic access panel you can remove to get to the oil filter. The drip is running off the inch size bolt right next to the oil filter. But the leak is somewhere up above that. Can't see where it's coming from exactly.
The drip, when it started, was accompanied by a strange squealing sound.

The truck had never made that sound before nor had there ever been a coolant drip from that spot. They are definitely connected.
I was in the middle of changing out the Throttle body heater plate as it had been leaking.

After I was done changing out the T-body plate and gasket, i filled her back up with coolant, turned her on, and she starts SQUEEEEEELING as if the belt were slipping. The drip turned into a small pour. And the squealing became something between a rattle and a squeal. The belt is fine no cracks.
Now I've read up on blown gasket and I know that can drop a lot of water. Also i know that the water pump can as well.
I know that the squealing sound is related to whatever is causing the leak.

My questions: What would squeal like that and then drop that amount of water? The head wouldn't make that sound right?
As always, help is greatly appreciated.
Nitefall

 

The squealing is the belt getting wet with coolant and then slipping on the pulleys because it is wet.

You are going to need to find the leak, but you already knew that.

 

Be extremely careful running that thing, the bearings could be going in the water pump right along with the seal for that matter. Often, just wetting the belt isn't enough to make it squeak. A bearing on the other hand, only has to START going bad and can make all sorts of noise! Watch your coolant level and watch the temp.!!! Good Luck.

 

Thanks guys. I was hoping no0ne would mention headgasket. Gonna order the fan wrench tonight, get that thing off and take a look-see. Hoping it's just the
pump.
Didn't have any coolant in my oil, nor in my oil cap, so sounds like pump is the right assessment.
Thanks again for the quick responses. I will update, maybe with some video.
Nitefall

 

First take off and throw away that plastic cover from under your engine, it just gets in the way.
If you are then unsure of the location of the leak, do a coolant pressure test to find the exact leak.

 

When my truck lost water from the water pump area it was accompanied by a very loud grinding kind of noise. I though it was a loose belt at first, but the sound was a bit too harsh for that. I posted and with a little help from my forum friends found that my leak was, in fact, coming from my water pump. I just couldn't understand why the noise.
When I finally got the water pump off i knew exactly what the noise was. The water pump gasket got caught in the water pump and it was get tangled and grinded up in the water pump blades!
The pic shows the old water pump. I don't think you can see it from the pic but the old gasket remnants were still lodged in the old pump.
In the other pic you can see a the light orange lip of the old gasket still stuck to the engine side of where the water pump fits. I had to remove all the old gasket before i could put the new one on. This was tricky as I didn't want to ruin the engine side, as this would not allow for a tight seal. Going at the old gasket too hard would not be wise. How would you get it level and able to hold a seal again, probably impossible.
SO with all that said, thanks guys for the valuable info. I got her fixed and she runs great. (That is until the hose coming off the top of the thermostat got loose and dropped all the coolant out, but that's another post)
I hope these pics help someone else. Long Live LandRover Forums!
NITEFALL

 

CHEAP WATERPUMP REPLACEMENT SPOTTED

The ones with the stamped metal impellers seem to be junky rebuilds, and it seems you god the short end of that stick. I like the OEM ones with the machines brass impeller.

On a different topic, my favorite gasket removal tool is this. Well, not tool, but material. I run them on a little angle grinder. They are magic - fast and easy, but they don't gouge up the part you are working on.

 

Really Daryl that's a crappy pump? How long you give it? Wish I would've known about your gasket removal tool before, would've saved me about an hour and half of trying to get that old gasket off.
For all the work it took to replace that thing though wish I used a better pump.

 

Sorry Daryl, that pic is of the old pump i took off. The new one i got from Atlantic.

 

so you meen the "CHEAP WATERPUMP REPLACEMENT SPOTTED" was actually the factory water pump?