Hey Guys - Hoping this is a quick and simple answer. 2006 LR3 4.4 the plastic coolant bleed tee on top engine hose has broken. When I replace this, I'm assuming that I need to bleed the system. The shop manual makes it look super easy, it states to open the bleed screw on the coolant bottle and fill and check when the vehicle has fully warm up and fully cool down. If this is true, what's the purpose for the plastic coolant bleed tee that I'm replacing?

 

That "T" is the top of the coolant system. For me, I needed to bleed from the coolant expansion tank and then get it warm enough to bleed from the "T" (held 1500 rpm as idle never really got it hot enough and then waited for coolant to come out of the bleed cap).

Otherwise I ended up with air pockets in the system which could create rapid rise in temp.

 

Thanks Airstream - That's the info I was looking for... The repair manual says nothing about using this tee to bleed the system. I'm also mystified why they would make this part plastic? But it's not the first time I've had a "What was they thinking" moment when working on the rovers.

 

Also, I believe someone on eBay sells a brass version of this part. I replaced with another plastic T from LR and IIRC it was pretty inexpensive (

 

If you only need to replace that broken T and have not lost any coolant and you are not trying to bleed it for other reasons then bleeding is not necessary AFAIK.

Just change out the broken piece. I did it a few months back as a preventative thing and it was a matter of disconnecting and reconnecting the hoses. OBVIOUSLY do wait until the system has cooled and coolant has drained from the tube assembly back to the expansion tank.

I could be wrong as others might want to bleed the coolant anyway, BUT I did this and then put another 10k miles on my truck with zero issues. Mine runs cool as a cucumber.