Two things:

1. The LR3 BOMBS on the Discovery...no matter what. They each require proper maintenance but there is no comparison. I love a nicely built 2004 D2, but the LR3 is still better.

2. Your Ex-GF sounds awful.

 

The D2 is much more truck/camel trophy like & the LR3 reminds me more of a P38 Range Rover in a more family/rugged setup vs a Range Rover body.

I've never had a RRC/D1/D2 let me down or leave me stranded. The LR3 had a serious couple of brain farts, but even after all of that it got me home.

And yes my EX-G/F was a complete nutcase!

 

Air in coolant lines, bleeder T is as said notorious for doing that, I keep a brass fitting in a toolbox for such an event AND a spare OEM T. Have heard you can fit a bic pen body in there for a roadside fix. You would need coolant and have to do the bleed procedure which is easy (not really like the D2). The only thermostat failure I know of is that they fail OPEN and not closed. The gasket starts peeling off the thermostat and it means it will never fully close, and the engine will cool more, instead of getting hotter.

IMO if your bleeder T blew, that's all that was, the temp gauge can't read air temperature, so the air in the loop is confusing it and also making the thermal exchange super poor thus overheat. Look around for the bleed procedure, I have described it at length before somewhere. NAPA sells 50/50 prestone dexcool premixed and it doesn't take long to remedy the issue. Thermostat swap isn't too hard either...

Good luck and don't give up!

 

That all makes a lot of sense and is great info to have!
I'm going to go mess with it now. My personal guess is thermostat but I don't know much about it still.

I'll look up the bleeding process

 

Here she goes. Guess I'm gonna take the mountain bike for a spin

 

What happened?

 

The local euro mechanic in Pueblo changed the thermostat and housing. The shop was nowhere near as professional or nice as our usual one in Norman but they got the job done and haven't had any problems since. Still haven't had a chance to take it out again yet either. Now there's a"bump" noise when the front right tire hits a bump. Not giving up yet, but she might soon.

 

...sounds like just a front lower control arm bushing to me.

 

And or a sway bar link

 

The bump noise is still there so I'm going to check it out while I'm off a couple of days. I think I've located where it's coming from but now I need to study and find out what the part is called !