Coolant and Heater Problems

Hi Everyone,

Have previously registered an introduced myself, but seem to has misplaced my login details. I'll introduce myself again

I have a 1999 Disco 2 TD5 ES, haven't had many issues with it but it's only got 77,000 on the clock. It now appear I'm experiencing my worst problem yet.

A few weeks ago i noticed i wasn't getting hot air out of the blowers constantly. I would go round some corners and it would blow out cool air, then go round other corners and it would blow out hot air. Down a hill and it'd be cool air up a hill and it'd be hot air.

I thought it would be coolant levels, so upon popping the bonnet and having a look i noticed the bleed screw on the top hose was seeping water. I ordered a new top hose as the bleed screw had snapped and fitted it. I top the system up by the method in the haynes manual and thought that would be it.

A few days later the coolant had dropped and after doing a short run in the car i open the bonnet and could hear pressure releasing itself from the expansion cap. I ordered a new cap but I'm still having the same problem, with pressure releasing from the cap, or now I'm thinking the expansion bottle itself. I have also noticed water from the overflow attached to the expansion bottle. I'm also still getting the original fault of the hot air from the blowers.

The temp gauge stay dead in the middle as normal, except twice now when going down the motorway at about 65-70 the temp gauge has suddenly increase to just below red and the car has kicked into limp mode. I can pull over turn the car off for a few minutes and then it fires up and works fine.

I'm really hoping it's not a HG or Head, could it be the water pump? New Expansion Tank? Themostat? Heater Matrix? I know it could be any of them but was wondering if anyone had a similar problem?

Thanks in Advance

Elliot

Sounds like a head gasket to me. Similar problem to my HG - hissing from expansion tank cap - I thought it was a faulty cap - replaced it a couple of times and tried several other fixes but it came down to HG fault. The HG fails and then gases go into the coolant system causing it to over-pressurize, so you get a bulge in the top hose, excess coolant coming out of the overflow and pressure releasing from the expansion tank cap. It should cost you about £700 - £1000 to fix depending on your garage. Get it fixed by an independent who has done HGs on Land Rovers before - preferably a specialist land rover mechanic but avoid the main dealers if possible. Mine is a 1999 TD5 and the HG was replaced about 50,000 miles ago. Oh, and get it fixed before you cook the head - a cracked head will cost you quite a bit more!!

Thanks tsangpa, That's what i was worried about! Contemplating doing it myself but it seems like quite a big job! I guess a pressure test is probably best before sending it off to a garage for a new HG. Is there any way on testing this first to be 100% that you know of?

sniff test is a good thing to get done.

i hope you tightened the sh*t out of the tank's cap didnt you? ..cos if it's not well tightened it makes trouble...and as said, make a sniff test before you remove the head

Thanks for all the replies! Just took it to a friend of mine who knows a bit about discos. He said it was just a big ass air lock, he un did the bleed screw and the expansion tank cap and kept filling it up with water, after about 10 mins we started to get air into the top hose. I'm going to try it again when i get back to get the rest of the air out.

Apparently if the HG has gone the top hose would swell up and the lid would blow off the expansion tank if you un did it. So hopefully it's just a solid air lock.

Any tips and tricks on getting the last bit of air out?

Unclip the resevoir and raise it as high as possible whilst filling the system.
Griff