My wife's disco has the following symptoms:

When I turn economy off on the AC I get three chimes and the lights for the LCD screens of the clock and AC panel dim for a second.

Possibly but not necissarily related I can smell coolant after the truck has been driven around for a while. I can find no coolant leak and the level does not change in the overflow tank. Needle is right in the middle (yes I know this means practically nothing).

Otherwise the truck runs well and I get no CEL or other lights on the dash.

Thanks
Eric

 

The coolant smell is the issue, so if I were a betting man, you have a minor leak and since you smell coolant it is coming from one of three places.

The first place is the throttle body heater, when it drips from there in drips on the valve cover, driver side and runs off the back of the engine and drips on the cataltic converter.

The Second place would be, your headgasket blew minorly on the water jacket fire wall side of the heads and is dripping out the back of the heads onto the catalytic convers.

The third is the head gasket blew and is going into the cylinder and the smell is coming out the tail pipe.

So when you smell the coolant next time, smell the tail pipe, when the engine is off I don't want you dieing on me, and see if it is coming from their. Also look on the top of the driver side valve cover and see if you see coolant.

Now what you should do is highly debateable in this form, at some point in the life of your Discovery you are going to need to do the head gaskets. If you are like me you might not want to try and take this project on in winter or you might not have the cash for it. So what I would do if the leak was from the heads is throw a bottle of K-Seal Coolant leak stop for 15 bucks in the coolant res. and see if you still smell the coolant in a couple of days, most likely it will take care of the issue. If not you can do a semi permenant fix soon.

If it is from the throttle body fix the throttle body by getting a throttle body heater and gasket kit. $27.00 and buy the Land Rover OEM version of this.

 

Doyle is jumping the gun a bit. There are many places that can leak coolant and create that smell. In addition to the throttle body heater and head gaskets, all the hoses (to include the tiny plastic ones that tend to break), the water pump, and the radiator can all leak.

The first thing is to take a flashlight and look for the leak. Check all the things I listed above. Loose hose clamps can leak more than you'd believe, so check hose connections as well as looking for splits.

If you can't spot the leak, rent a coolant system pressure tester from Advance Auto (these definitely fit our trucks) and pressure test the system. You pump it up to pressure (I think it's 15 psi, but I could be remembering wrong), then take a flashlight and look at every place it might leak. You'll need to crawl underneath and look at the hoses and pump, as well as the timing cover and finally the front and rear of each head. Depending on how bad your leak is, it may be just one drop, or it may be a spray. If you don't find anything, leave it pressurized and do the same flashlight check every couple of hours. Keep a close eye to see if the system is losing pressure.

Let us know what you find.

 

Well I think I found the coolant issue.

Please tell me it's something simple and cheap

Coolant seems to be accumulating in the valley under the intake manifold on top of the head. I'm not sure where it's coming from but it seems to accumulate slowly and thicken and then dry there.

The following photo shows it on the passenger side of the engine. Here it is dry and crusty.



Here it is on the driver side and here the area seems deeper so it is more gooey than dry and crusty.



Here's what was in the crevice on the passenger side.



So where do you think this is coming from/

I'm thinking one of the coolant lines that attaches to the head is leaking but I don't know. I can see what look like small pieces of what look like O rings or some sort of circular seal mixed in with the dried coolant.

Any idea what the three chimes and dimming lights were when I turned on the AC? it went away by the way.

Eric

 

you need a pressure tester to find your leak, I wont be surprised if it were the timing chain cover. that is were my leak was and it was right under the ac compressor which made it harder to find.

 

That's where it seems to be coming from, under the AC compressor.

If that's the case what's involved in the repair? Would some stop leak suffice?

Thanks

Eric

 

The timing cover is behind the fan and water pump. If you have ever done any car work it's not too tough to do, but it's a bit time consuming.

You could try just tightening down the bolt on the timing cover a bit, but don't go crazy, because it's easy to strip boltholes in these aluminum blocks.

Stop leak is generally not recommended for leaks like this because it's possible the stop leak with damage the radiator and/or heater core. I'm a stop leak advocate when it's something like a blown head gasket because it's such a major job, but this one really should just be fixed.

 

it will take you a few hours nothing complicated bolts out, bolts in.
I "personally" would never use stop leak, to many problems afterwords. IMHO

depending on your mileage you might want to change other things like the timing chain, water pump, oil pump gears while it is off.

 

107K miles with dealer maintenance since new.

Do you think the timing chain and oil pump gears need it?

Where would your recommend getting the gears?

I can get everything else from BMA Auto Parts as they are local to me.

Anything else while I'm in there?

Thanks

Eric

 

Atlantic British or British parts of Utah will have the parts you'll need. Make sure your leak isn't coming from the water pump before you tear everything apart. A water pump is on the timing cover, and is WAY easier to replace. Your car at 104k would probably need the gears and chain,well because, it's got that much mileage and you might as well do it while your down there, so you'll never have to again.