For the last few days the thermostat will creep up to showing high heat for a couple of minutes shortly after starting to drive then drop back down to reporting an appropriate running temp around the middle of the range. Today for the first time the red light also came on but, again, this lasted about two minutes before it went back down to normal. Is this a common / known issue?

Thanks

 

@screedle not normal at all that gauge is an idiot light if it starts moving past mid range you have a problem.

To give a real world example from 176 to 215 degrees mine does not move an inch it sits right in the middle that is a 40 deg F temp change

I would start by bleeding the system make sure you have no air in the system
Then replace the thermostat and flush the cooling system
If you still have problems it gets more complex

 

You are well on the way to killing your engine

why don’t you have a ultraguage or similar to constant monitor your coolant temp ??

 

This is a brand new issue and I don't know about vehicles, hence checking in here.

 

You picked the right place to check in!! Stop driving that truck immediately and either find your local independent land rover specialist or start digging into the forum using search terms overheat, cooling system, etc.

Where are you located? Forum members may be able to point you toward a competent shop or even offer a helping hand.

 

Thanks very much, I'm located in Calgary, AB, Canada. South end of the city (in case there's anyone familiar with local shops). I'm aware that a lot of people take their LR's to TRS (formerly The Rover Shop) but I also don't know if this is the type of thing that would require a specialist in LR's or is more of a generic issue that anyone could deal with.

 

To be honest I assumed by your original post that you don't have too much in the way of mechanical skills. Owning a Rover you have a great reason to acquire more of those skills... Or have a large bank account.

But seriously it is fairly simple if you have the time, place, and skills to properly troubleshoot the issue.

If you don't then take it to the shop.

If you do, then as I mentioned there is a ton of info here as well as youtube videos on Land Rover cooling system issues.

Best of luck!

 

@screedle I know it may sound excessive to you but you have an aluminum engine with steel inserted sleeves. Any significant overheat can lead to:

• Warped heads
• head gasket failure
• cracked blocks
• sleeve slippage

You are not there yet but you need to have this addressed and avoid driving. The land rover shop is your best bet, not that the cooling system is hugely complex but they should have experience and parts to get it sorted out.

 

Thank you for the reply, can the vehicle at least be driven to get it to a shop?

 

@screedle That is a tough call, I would suggest not based on what you have described. The problem is it may be fine, but if it hits overheat and stays there you could be looking at a 3500.00 plus bill for head gaskets, a tow is pretty cheap by comparison. You could get some form of AAA, I have BCAA for 160 a year they will tow me 320 Km twice, as well as a bunch of shorter trips including Forest service roads. Might be worth it.