Radiator failure

Has any one heard of this before?

My old man has a 96 p38 DSE manual Rangie (110,000 miles), after struggling to get it into gear at a junction he limped it home only to find a large pool of creamy gear oil underneath it!! On investigation this oil was found to be coming out of the gear box breather pipes located in the engine bay next to the brake fluid reservoir. It seems that the transmission oil cooler has failed and let the coolant flow into the gear box and out through the breather pipes!! This has also contaminated the clutch as gear selection is very difficult. The rad top up bottle has the same creamy fluid in it. Has any one experianced this before? and what is it like to fix? cost? time involved?

Cheers

haybales said:

Has any one heard of this before?

My old man has a 96 p38 DSE manual Rangie (110,000 miles), after struggling to get it into gear at a junction he limped it home only to find a large pool of creamy gear oil underneath it!! On investigation this oil was found to be coming out of the gear box breather pipes located in the engine bay next to the brake fluid reservoir. It seems that the transmission oil cooler has failed and let the coolant flow into the gear box and out through the breather pipes!! This has also contaminated the clutch as gear selection is very difficult. The rad top up bottle has the same creamy fluid in it. Has any one experianced this before? and what is it like to fix? cost? time involved?

Cheers

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I can only say that YES I have heard of this before and seen it on a London Taxi Cab. I dont know the fix time or cost involved though. I would assume you will need a new radiator at the very least. You would need to completely flush out the cooling system of the engine, well, I would anyway.

I have no idea about the gearbox though.

Does your father have a good specialist that can take a look??

-Wills

The Rangie is at the garage now, we're just worried what the estimate for repair might be. Can the rad be repaired or has it got to be replaced? And if the oil has got onto the clutch plate what seals will need replacing?

i would have thought the worry would be if gear oil has got into the engine coolant then engine coolant will get into the gearbox!!!
the reason gear selection is difficult is due to water in the box instead of oil on the clutch as unless the oil on the clutch has caused the plates to swell (unlikely) the clutch will just end up slipping and this wont make gear selection hard!
looks like a new rad is required, then flush engine coolant thoroughly, the drain g/box oil and refill with fresh, then see how the clutch handles? only then will you know if it needs changing, as you havent mentioned it sliping you may be ok?

p.s. for the cost of a new rad dont even try to repair it, not that i think it can be done anyway! and R/rover rads do tend to suffer from restricted water ways so a new one will do your cooling systerm a favour.....

I recently had to have the radiator changed on my 96 P38 diesel as it had sprung a leak. Mine was the early radiator which is combined engine cooler and gearbox cooler - sounds like yours. Local independent charged me £450 inc parts and labour. I can't remember the actually hours they charged for but they had the car all day.
Hope this helps.
mikeateves

mikeateves said:

I recently had to have the radiator changed on my 96 P38 diesel as it had sprung a leak. Mine was the early radiator which is combined engine cooler and gearbox cooler - sounds like yours. Local independent charged me £450 inc parts and labour. I can't remember the actually hours they charged for but they had the car all day.
Hope this helps.
mikeateves

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just thought!
i recently fitted new transmision cooler to my 96 4.6 hse, its totaly independant to the coolant radiator, im assuming the difference is between petrol and diesel but why? does the petrol version need a larger cooling capacity?

and £450 to supply and fit a rad seems a lot of money, i took mine out to fit electric fan, it took 20 mins out and back in! the only extras on yours would be 2 oil pipes from transmission! seems £200 labour is an awfull lot.....

Hi,

Just catching up with the postings. I believe the difference is between the early P38 diesels and the later ones. I don't know when but at some point the diesels had separate radiator, transmission cooler and engine oil cooler. The early ones like mine had a combined radiator and transmission cooler as a single unit.

I expect I could have changed the radiator myself except I was in a hurry to get it done and I didn't have time to do it myself. Unfortunately I don't know of a garage near me who doesn't charge an arm and a leg for labour.

Many thanks for all your advice. We have ended up replacing the rad' (£170) and we have flushed the gear box out, the motor is now back on the road with no damage to the clutch.

hee hee - £170

cheap as chips