Hello, so answers would be helpful. I took off to get my daughter from soccer, drove for 5 minutes, with heat on and seat warmer on. The temp light went into red. I pulled over and left the rover running but turned of the seat heater and the heat, thermostat went back to normal. So I left it all off and made it to the school. Sitting here in a panic wondering if I should start hoofing it with my daughter and leave the damn bulldogge in the car, since I did not bring a leash, suppose to be quick trip. Husband is hour away taking public transportation.

Be gentle, complete idiot mechanically, any thoughts!

 

have you checked your coolant level?
the electric seat heater had nothing to do with the over heating. it sounds like it could be a sticking thermostat. just took it some extra time to decide to open up and get the coolant flowing properly.
i'll let others weigh in on whether you should drive or not. generally speaking you don't want to overheat the beast.
jon

 

Well I made it home. We didn't put the heat on and had the windows down, brrr, since the windshield was fogging up. This problem has to have something to do with turning the heat on. Not the seat heater just the regular heater. Patrick keeps an eye on the fluids.

He is going to take it for a little test drive with the heat on, since I don't really think he believes me. I did think that putting the heat on was suppose to help bring the temp down

 

Stop test driving until coolant level is filled back up to normal. Prince Charming should stop test driving, you'll do more damage.

You have a D2, and the "turn on the cabin heat" (not heated seats) trick has minor impact. This is because coolant always circulates thru the heater core under the dash when the engine is running, even if heat is not "on." On older models, like a D1, the heater core is isolated normally, so when overheating you can get a small boost of cooling by turning it on high and turning up the fan.

I suspect you will find that you have low coolant level. When you parked the truck and left it at idle, you reduced the heat being generated by the engine and the cooling system was able to catch up. Would have been better to just cut engine off.

Here are serious questions:

1. Have you damaged the engine? Maybe. Rovers do not like to overheat. However, the warning light comes on after you have been driving around on low fluid for a while, like maybe weeks. So you could have been borderline for sometime. The heat meter provides an average value computed by the engine computer. It will show 9:00 position even when you are approaching overheat.

You will have to drive truck, hopefully no more incidents, no codes. Watch for more overheat, loss of coolant, white smoke out tail pipe once warmed up, and noise under dash that sound like water running and gurgling (that would be bubbles of combustion exhaust gas in the coolant). All these could indicate a blown head gasket.

2. Why are you low on coolant? Does Prince Charming spend a few minutes under the hood each week to check every fluid quickly available (coolant, oil, power steering, brake, battery terminals tight)? Buy him a box of nitrile gloves.

If coolant leaked out (we had a recent poster with two gallons low on a 3 gallon system), it had to go somewhere. If no leaks under the truck, put some fresh cardboard under there and let it idle for 20 minutes or so while hoses are wiggled.

If coolant loss continues, you can borrow / rent a coolant pressure tester at the auto parts store, you pump up the cooling system to 20 PSI for like 30 minutes. This will ferret out most small leaks.

3. With age of your truck you should have flushed and replaced coolant several times during its life. At this point, you may have a water pump that is beginning to leak, it will leak around the front of the engine. The fan pulley may wobble. A new pump is a $50 - $150 part depending on source, and about an hour, maybe 2, for a DIY mechanic.

4. Attached is a layout of the cooling system from the RAVE tech manual. These are all the places coolant can leak from a hose clamp.

 

FYI, Prince Charming reads the treads we may be getting closer, BUT, coolant levels are full and remain so. This does not mean our little beauty is leak free, as seen from the cardboard always underneath it.

Our dash does make what sounds like a waterfall noise on the passenger side. We test drove a few of these before buying this little bugger and they all made that noise, thought it was normal

To be fair, I pretty much begged my Jack of all Trades to buy me this LR, we had it a week and he was in our garage all weekend replacing the driveshaft and doing something else to some u joints.

Will tell him to check out the stuff you mentioned

 

Then I am most concerned that you have larger issues. If coolant is full, AND remains so, generally only a few things cause overheat:

1. Water rushing noise may have indicated long term head gasket leak, but surely you would have seen other things, like water in oil when changed, oil in coolant jug (scum), plenty of other overheating, white smoke from exhaust, smell of coolant. Bubbles can also just be trapped air, which can be purged.

2. Overheating with coolant can indicate poor water pump, blocked radiator outside (mud, trash, leaves), blocked radiator inside (calcium buildup from using tap water instead of distilled water). This is normally at moderate speed and slow speed.

3. At low speeds, overheat can be caused by worn out fan clutch. It has to "engage" to provide more cooling when hotter than normal, if it doesn't, temp climbs. When engine warmed up, AND off, spin fan by hand. Should feel somewhat stiff, maybe spin 1/2 to 1 revolution. If it "freewheels" the fluid inside the clutch has dripped out, and replacement is the way to go. Write up in tech section.

4. Cracked block.

5. Thermostat. D2 has unique thermostat in the plumbing. Has some little holes in it that sample the hot water to make it work. When they clog, the sampling takes longer and longer and it heats up more and more. See https://landroverforums.com/forum/at...mostat-005-jpg

 

Thanks Buzz, your info has been very helpful, he has plenty to do this weekend. now he has a better idea what that is

 

If he has fearlessly defended the trasmission from being speared by the drive shaft, this stuff will be simple. If he has a code scanner, it can read the raw data of the coolant temperature and he can see if he is making progress without having to wait for truck to overheat.

 

not sure if it's already been mentioned but make sure you bleed coolant system to purge out any air. good luck, keep us updated.

 

Now that we know gurgling isn't normal, he will. No code scanner, but maybe we can buy one.

Yep driveshaft never heard F$&K so much in one weekend. OMG!