She's Never let me down, until she did.
 

I write with a humble hear. I think I'm in denial, but I know I can count on the forum to give me some unfiltered bad news.

My LR3 has 207K on it. She's never left me stranded until last week, parked and left running at my parents house, dog in car... just ran in for a quick chat. I heard something and ran to the front to find my car smoking/steaming. I shut her down and saved the dog who was absolutely thrilled to see me, oblivious to what was occurring. There was coolant all over the ground, in abundance.

As I was shutting her down, i did have the foresight to look at the instrument cluster. The engine temp was pinned to the middle, no warning signs.

AAA called. Hood Open. It took about three minutes to find that the plastic tee on the upper radiator hose busted. I felt some relief, but now the question was/is, did I toast my engine or do a lot of damage to it.

So - she got towed and three days later, I had the new hose and threw it in. it wasn't hard at all, but I did have to take apart the intake box and the plenum going into the throttle body just to get enough clearance to get those hoses on.

I filled her with coolant and voila! She started. So, I load the coolant in the passenger seat, anticipating that when she got to temp, I'd pull over and top her off. I know the system holds air, etc.

Well, I barely made it home (and I just tooled around the hood - maybe went a mile). She started off normal, but within a few minutes, the car seemed to have lost all power. I barely made it up a modest hill. Oh, Keep in mind; my gas light is on this whole time.

So - I'm pretty confident I toasted my engine. I call it a night, and then for the next day think about the hose install. "What else could cause loss of power that's not as catastrophic as no compression?" I'm thinking. Given I was fooling around with the air box, i think "Hey - maybe I have a vacuum leak - maybe I put her back together too hastily".

Today, I took her apart, cleaned everything; MAF Sensor cleaned, throttle bottle disassembled and cleaned, and airbox, plenum CAREFULLY re-assembled. As a matter of fact, there is a rubber gasklet seal that was definitely not on cleanly. I was optimistic on this vacuum leak theory. What a damn fool.

I start her up.... and she's is just cranking... she finally starts and stalls. But - it's doesn't feel right. I conclude this is a separate issue, and that I might be low on gas. Two gallons in - she starts and purrs like a kitten. Sounds fine. No codes on the scanner... engine sounds good.

I take her for a spin and - well. In the VERY beginning of this vid, I hear some knocks, i think?

The second video I hear some horrible rattling. The rattling occurs when I accelerate - not randomly. Any commentary would be kindly appreciated.

And btw - if you haven't changed your hoses, don't be a d*** like me. :confused:






https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2h7iCUW0CE


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMLj8C4-YMQ



Other random facts that I don't think matter;

I have no heat. I can't seem to get my temp gage to move. Wondering if i toasted my thermostat during this over heat? Can't imagine it even matters at this point. I suspect I don't have enough coolant in the system, since It takes some cycling to get the air out of this system, but I suppose if the thermostat won't open, that's gonna be hard or impossible.

What to do.. what to do...

You definitely did not bleed the system properly and no heat means you have air in the system. As to the no power, I think you need to bleed it properly then see where you stand.

Atlantic british has a video on a DIY bleed procedure without special tools.

Thermostat doesn't seem to want to open, but I'll throw a new one in and see where that leaves me.

I would definitely replace the thermostat. And by thermostat, I mean the complete coolant crossover where the thermostat attaches. Every one I have seen overheat, damaged the crossover if it wasn't leaking already.
It isn't common for these engines to blow a headgasket, however if hot enough, they WILL.
I would start with replacing the coolant crossover and getting the system FULLY BLED. No heat = air pocket.
Then re-evaluate.

ditto what was said, you need to bleed the coolant loop which is actually easy.

As for thermostat failure, I would say unlikely. The only ones I have seen fail are ones that fail open, not closed, which would actually cool the truck better. Techniker could be right that the housing itself is schwacked.

Never mess with the coolant system without checking it is bled of all air. And definitely do not drive it around before then.

I took the advice of the good-faithful forum and threw a new thermostat and started her up let her come to temp. Still no heat but she was gurgling good. Finally the coolant went down, and i was able to fill her up. She took quite a bit. Started her back up and let her come back to temp, and then shut her down, opened the bleed screw, and let her spew air for a bit, and kept doing this a few times. So, Interesting fact is that I have NOT found a video that really shows someone bleeding this system. There are tons of vids of people standing near rovers, describing how it's done but it looks nothing like I imagined.

Conclusion: Either a bad thermostat caused system to stay closed, causing the tee in the upper radiator hose to bust and cause over heat.

The car drank 11 qts of coolant, after many many tries, and now has heat, full power, no engine noises.

Thanks guys.

You have to hunt around, but there are several threads which describe the exact bleeding process. I myself included a few. Never saw a video either. I had a tech at a dealer explain to me how he does it and then I went home to do that.

Glad its better :)

11 quarts!!! I can't believe it takes that much, but 10.6 quarts with the rear heater is the listed capacity.

I've used a vacuum bleeder for about 8 years now and haven't look back since.