Hey guys, I'm a new member, and just bought a 97 Disco LSE. It has been running cold recently, the engine never seems to warm up and the heat doesn't ever get hot enough. Is it a problem with the thermostat possibly? The check engine light just came on and I'm heading down to use an OBD II Scanner today and get the codes.

I'll post them back when I have them.

 

Engine running cold is sometimes "thermostat stuck open", though it should *eventually* warm up. Could be a bad sensor on the engine temp gage.

 

So i got the following codes.

P1317 - which is an ABS Rough Road Low Line Fault

P0116 - coolant temp sensor out of range

The ABS light has been on, the guy I bought it from said not to worry. It has been a little slow on the startup but runs fine even though the engine runs cold.

What's the best plan of action?

 

My speculation is this: you may have a bad sensor, and you probably have air bubbles in your cooling system.

First, find the sticky posting here about how to bleed your cooling system, and do that, and see if that fixes both "no actual heat" and "temp gauge always low".

If it fixes the first but not the second, then replace the temp sensor as well.

As for 1317... search the forums for "ABS rough"; I remember we've talked about that, but I don't remember what was said.

 

Additionally, there's a bypass valve mentioned on 26-2-6 of the RAVE, which might -- if it's stuck the wrong way -- be pertinent to your "no actual heat" problem.

 

I finally got a chance to get out there, and found that there was NO thermostat and no gasket. I replaced it with a failsafe, but it raises some questions. I haven't heard back from the guy who sold it to me, who is a Rover mechanic at Pikes Peak Rovers in Colorado Springs.

Is there some sort of fix he did to make it run decently to sell? Is there a chance that the Disco has overheating issues of some kind that removing a thermostat would fix? I can't for the life of me figure out why there wouldn't be a cheap part like this in there, unless he just didn't know.

edit: just got in some highway time, and the engine temp is running fine.

 

go to NAPA get a block tester its 50.00 fill the tube with the blue fluid insert into the coolant bottle and run the engine if the fluid turns yellow then you have either a blown headgasket, cracked head or cracked block