So I have a 2001 Landrover Disco 2 with 185,000 miles that I just bought from a guy here in town . Not a smart man however willing to sell the Disco cheap due to leaving the country. My boyfriend who has had mechanical knowledge of these ( as of owning two ) encouraged the purchase, and as a gal who is always wanting to learn new things i bought it.

I drove it for a week or so and it overheated and I had lost heat to the cab as well . It didnt over heat for very long due to my paranoia of always watching gauges on new vehicles. I was able to limp it home. We added the proper amount of coolant and ran the vehicle however we now suspected an air pocket in the system after it climbed in temperature again. We then removed the hose directly off of the top of the radiator near the air box to add the coolant to ensure we could keep air pockets from being an issue. Since we couldn't find a leak in the system, we started with replacing the thermostat. Since then we were able to see a consistent 1/2 way up temperature gauge when running after installing the thermostat we had assumed the issue had been fixed. We went on a test drive and its over heating again and the only place coolant is coming out is the coolant reservoir and over flow. I have ordered a new coolant res. cap thinking maybe that could be the issue. If the Disco still overheats after the res. cap is replaced what should be my next move ?

 

Well, I was going to hold off until someone with more experience chimed in...

My friend bought an 03 that has all kinds of cooling issues.

1) the stock gauge(on all discoverys) does not work. It will sit in the middle from 180-230. You need an OBDII gauge like an ultragauge if you really want to know the temp.

2) is there a waterfall noise behind the dash at the heater core? This means that there is air in the system and it needs to be bled.(check D2 section for bleeding cooling system)

3) once you get the new cap, check the hoses when the car is hot. Are they "over pressurized" as in rock hard? Could be a crack or slipped liner creating steam pressure(land rover tech told me that). We think this is my friends problem, he actually has a coolant tank split open on him after we put all new hose clamps.

4) does the fan clutch have good resistance? Can you spin it freely by hand? It should have tension and not be easy to spin.

5) Not that this is the problem, but it's a good idea. Did you use the 180 t stat?

6) have you cleaned the radiator externally? Is there a bunch of leaves and crude blocking the airflow? How about flushing it?

7) did this problem happen when the AC was on? Does your electric fan kick on when the car gets hot?

Good luck