Forever lurker here in need of some insight. Kinda long story, so my apologies in advance.

My 08 LR3 was running perfectly with around 145k miles on it. I drove about three miles from my house on a cold engine, parked and cam back to the vehicle about 20 min later. When I started it, the battery light came on. I went to reverse and had no power steering. Checked the engine compartment and realized the serpentine belt had snapped. I had a leaky water pump for a few months leading up to this, so I figured maybe the pulley went off-axis and the belt shredded. I had it towed to my driveway, turned it on and backed it into my driveway without power steering, but otherwise it was running fine.

I swapped the water pump in the driveway, replaced the serpentine belt, topped up the coolant and started it up. A bit of smoke from the engine compartment and burning smell so I turned it off. Had someone get eyes on the belt for another try and it turned out the AC compressor was seized, turned it back off. I would estimate the engine was on for about five seconds each time.

I am not equipped to do the AC compressor swap, so I had it towed to a local garage that I have taken the vehicle to before. Not a specialty shop, but they have always done a good job for me. The next morning a get a call from them asking when the truck was last running. I was confused, and explained the sequence of events above and that the vehicle never struggled to start or run. Just that the pulley on the AC compressor was seized, so I turned it off to avoid losing another serpentine belt. They said it must have overheated at some point because they had no compression in the engine. I assured them the vehicle did not overheat and that I was the only driver. They said to give them time to more thoroughly inspect the situation.

The report came back that the vehicle arrived with 0 compression on cylinder 2 and low compression on cylinders 4/5/6.

Actual report: "The engine cranks but does not start. There is a squealing noise when cranking, sounds like no compression. The belts are still on the vehicle, removed and rechecked. Same issues are happening. Checked the oil level and found no issues. Checked relative compression and found very erratic compression, cylinder 2 has no compression, 5, 4 and 6 are also very low. Leak down tested cylinder 2 and found 90% leakage. The air is going into the intake. Also, found liquid leaking from the head into the cylinder, this may be coolant or oil, possibly from valve seals or a crack in the head or head gasket. The engine has failed, likely from overheating."

I asked the tech if they could help explain what might have happened, since overheating was not the culprit, and they said "I cannot tell you how it got this way, I can only tell you how it is". Fair enough, but I am trying to figure out what went wrong here. I asked the local LR dealership if they could have their specialist who works on our older trucks to look at it and maybe provide a proper death certificate and they refused saying there was nothing they would be able to do beyond what the first garage did.

I know to the mechanics it is just an old vehicle and barely worth the concern I have, but you all know how it is when you bond with one of these trucks. Is there anything I could have done differently? The only possible point of overheating was that three mile drive from my house, and I saw zero signs of it overheating. The fact that I turned it on and backed it into up my driveway tells me it still had compression at that point. The other two times I test started it were for a few seconds each.

Is there any possibility of repair at this point? Time to look for a new (used) engine? Time to sell the truck off for parts? It ran like a champ up until this point. Well maintained and fairly low mileage to just give up on it, but if that is the most logical move, such is life.

Thanks for any insights you might be able to share.

 

I wish I had insight for you; this is really sad. Worth a second opinion if there is another good mechanic in town. Too bad the dealer is worthless.

 

If it was me, I'd run a compression test myself as a sanity check. A lot of this just doesn't add up. It shouldn't have run well or possibly at all in that condition. Leakdown tests need to be run at TDC, so it's possible the mechanic screwed something up. Low compression in those cylinders (assuming he knows the labeling convention or even if he got it wrong) also wouldn't seem to map to a head or gasket failure. And "coolant or oil" in the cylinder? Even in a dark hole you should be able to tell the difference. Also low compression doesn't "squeal" in my experience so I think it's worth doing some of your own troubleshooting before calling 1800CARS4KIDS.

You should be able to troubleshoot without the belt on to bypass the A/C pump--that's the least of your worries at the moment. Just see if you can start it again, run the compression test, etc. without the belt in place. It's super odd, please let us know how it plays out no matter what you do.

 

I agree, don't see how it can go from fine one minute to loss of compression the next.

 

Thank you for the replies. I am going to have it towed to another mechanic when I can find one that is interested in digging further. I am mechanically inclined, but certainly not a mechanic myself. I just wanted to make sure my confusion was warranted. I will report back when I have more information. Thanks again.

 

Compression test is easy do it yourself task give it a go. A tester is pretty cheap

 

I just looked into it and yes, this is definitely something I can do myself. Thank you for the nudge. Much appreciated.