kylaroy77: I see them now...

You have a Discovery, like I do, the other pic from the dealer lot is a Discovery Sport, a model with no relation to the Discovery beyond the name (I hate LR's naming conventions, it causes no end of confusion imho) and is ironically a cheaper vehicle yet has those protective grills as you say.

I remember looking at mine when I first washed it after bringing it home and feeling very uneasy about those unprotected vents. I seem to recall there is no protection in the area between the painted part of the front bumper where the licence plate goes, and the lower matt black piece. Possibly below that piece too, I forget...

I mean, granted in all cases it is extremely bad luck that a stone large enough to cause enough impact to rupture the radiator did head towards the front of the car at exactly the right moment and angle to get in with enough maintained velocity. But regardless, the fact that it did happen shows it is more than hypothetical. I'm going to have to have a think about how to affix some of that autostyling black mesh behind there, the stuff the car tuner types use on their vehicles, as it would be one thing to have to pay to replace a radiator but quite another to have to replace the engine given that you received no warning regarding over heating, just a message about coolant level being low. (mental note: pull over immediately if I see that message, although I question if it would still be too late which seems preposterous).

Mine is at the dealership at the moment so I can't get a look at the front, or the owners manual which is in the glovebox but I am going to have a thorough read when I get it back.

I see you mentioned your insurance were involved and questioning the quote, do they actually cover this kind of road hazard damage?

If you haven't already see if you can get this on any other forums, specifically Land Rover ones, and Facebook groups etc to see if anyone else has had this issue.

 

Wow - that's terrible. Really sorry to hear that.

Unfortunately it sounds like the rock is accident damage so I can see why LR won't cover on warranty. But surely your car insurance covers that? Or is that not the case?

Unfortunately when a car loses coolant fast the engine can get really hot but the coolant temp sensor doesn't have liquid around it any more so it won't register the high temp
But these engines have an aluminum block which is sensitive to heat. Overheating them can kill them. So a reminder to everyone here - if coolant is low stop immediately and shut it down

To the OP - please let us know how you get on. As it's brand new it would be nice to see LR step up here. Else your car insurance should be making you whole

 

Sorry to hear about your troubles, but something sounds seriously off.
An engine will not fail due to low coolant unless it seriously overheats. Doesn’t sound like you got or saw an overheating warning. The most common failure from overheating will be a headgasket failure. I don’t see this happening in such a short period and would seriously expect a major warning light to come on the IP.

The part that really doesn’t add up is that they just replaced the radiator without checking anything else??? And then call the customer with a vehicle that doesn’t start?

Did the engine just magically fail at the dealer?
Also did you hear any knocking sounds when the tow guy started it and pulled it out of the driveway?

A lot of things don’t add up, hopefully the insurance get to the bottom of it and at least make you whole.

Is it a TD6?

 

Could the dealer have replaced the radiator and forgot to fill it - making it over heat when they ran it?

 

LoneStarLR - ahhh, yes you are correct. That is a Discovery Sport , my apologies, i hadn't realized that. Agree that it is one in a million that a rock could achieve what it did. I just can't believe that the engine blew with no warning - that to me is a MAJOR design flaw. The car will beep and ring if you move 10 feet without your seat belt or if a tire is the least bit low. But the engine gets too hot and nothing. Our insurance has said that they are very suspicious of the dealership. They (the insurance) said the dealership is being unusually pushy in trying to get them to replace the engine, calling every day. And with that, we received a certified letter from our insurance company saying that they reserve the right not to pay for it if they suspect LR should take responsibility. A nightmare. Hey thanks so much for your time on this - i hope you've had a great 4th!

 

Thanks BritCars - I'll let you guys know. Appreciate your thoughts. Happy 4th!

 

Andries - agree 100% that there should be some kind of warning. And you're bringing up the point that makes me so confused and upset - why did they call me and tell me they replaced the radiator under warranty (GM of the dealership says that NEVER should have happened), allow me to come and pick it up and when I notice it didn't start properly on their lot, they drive it away and say they'll check it out. 24 hours later, they call and say the engine is dead. Makes no sense. On my Land Rover app i can see that they drove it for 4.3 miles (testing their work) about 45 minutes before they called to tell me the car was ready for pick up. I'm getting vibes from our insurance that they truly think LR is responsible and won't cover it. But, i'm still keeping out hope. As far as the tow truck driver, no there was no knocking noise or anything when he drove it but, the dealership says that's because the engine had cooled down by then ( it was an hour after i pulled into the driveway.).

 

Hayseed_D5 - you have stopped us in our tracks. I am not a mechanic but, wonder if this is possible? Sorry to repeat myself but, just laying out the details: they called at 11:30am and said the radiator was hit by rock and they were replacing it under warranty, not to worry. At 4:00pm, according to my Land Rover App, they drove the car for 4.3 miles, average speed 32 mph, testing the radiator. At 4:45p they call and tell me the car is ready for pick-up. Wonder if what you say is possible? Again, a case of he said, she said, given that they refuse to share the computer codes for "proprietary" reasons, we will likely never know.

 

If the engine was kaput when you brought it in, you would think they would have noticed on a 4.3 mile test drive.

I am on JLR side if the rock caused the damage. Sucks but that is an act of God and not covered. However, if there are shenanigans going on - call them out.

 

I wonder if the app has any warning on it, perhaps check and see what it shows under Assistance>Vehicle Heath Report.

I would definitely push back hard on the dealership given that they drove 4.3 miles before you came to pick up the D5 without noticing the engine is shot. The sequence of events doesn't add up. You can also pull all the error codes and typically some timestamp from the ECU, to see what happened where. That may be the most telling. It may be that the engine got damaged before, but I'm very skeptical given that you never got an alert of overheating. The Owner's manual clearly states a red engine temperature warning lamp will illuminate if the temperature gets to high.

My gut feel is that the engine was fine when it went to the dealer, and they either didn't fill the coolant properly or bleed it properly to get air out of the system and damaged it during the test drive. But that will be hard to prove, unless you can clearly get the codes from the ECU that shows something along those lines. I can obviously be wrong, but you mentioned getting a low coolant only 1 minute or so before shutting down, and it wasn't like you were using the engine high load, I find it hard to believe damage would occur that fast.

FYI, the side vents are the supercharger coolers, though I believe they are tied to the engine cooling system. Loosing coolant there will ultimately impact the engine cooling. If you have a TD6 is is an air to air intercooler on the left and aux radiator on the right, so depends on the side of impact.