Big Coolant Leak

Hi Guys,

New here - and not a car buff (father in law is though) - Bit of an issue. Have a 2003 1.8 S petrol Freelander, had been using quite alot of water, and then I drove 5 minutes up the road, and back about an hour later after topping up with water. I woke up this morning to find my car sat in a pool of coolant all over the drive. It looks like the water has come from somewhere near the back bottom of the engine. the reservour is dry. Oil is still jet black. The temperature was really cold last night around -4. Any one got any ideas what this could be???

Would really appreciate your advice

Could be core plugs aka frost plugs .37D2260L CORE PLUG | Freelander 1996>: Engine | shop | www.lrseries.com | L. R. Series .

water pump perhaps, or its pushed a hose off, from the ird, or heater hose leaking, or the coolant pipe across the back of the engine has burst, or thermostat housing cracked, you are going to have to start looking, best with the undertray removed............

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdaZj7UDVeo]Core Plug replace - YouTube[/ame] get under with a torch and find the plugs and see if one has rusted through and leaking .

Hi,

Did you have a good mix of coolant in there? I'm just wondering whether it may have frozen up.

Andy.

Only way to tell for sure is by inspection. Fill up the cooling system and bleed via the 2 bleed screws (one on the heater hose and one below the air box on the metal coolant pipe the wraps round the back of the engine) then run the engine until hot and inspect for signs of leakage. Main leakage points are described by freelance above. Could also be the coolant tank cap.

if youve just been topping it up with water its not going to have any protection against this cold weather weve been having latly. its more than likly froze up pushed one of the core plugs out the block. as its warmed up its not got nothing holding it in the block causing your pool of water. should be prety easy to fix (if this is the cause of your coolant loss and that they are same as ford)

Thanks for all the advice guys - well not sure if it was a freezing issue, as the coolant that was on the floor was down for 2 days and everything else around froze but the puddle so.... never mind, will be investigating further once this pesky snow has cleared!

Your cooling system:


cooling18 Y8QrxeA

Well lads another riddle for you to solve please. I park my 2003 1.8 petrol FL on my drive at night, the drive has a slight incline, when I come out in the mornings there is a small pool of water under the left hand side (viewing from the front) I,ve checked every thing I can and cant find any leaks, strange thing is it doesn't happen when its parked on the flat. I know what some one will say, leave it parked on the road!!, not bloody likely around my neck of the woods! Thanks for any advice.

oderuyter said:

Hi Guys,

New here - and not a car buff (father in law is though) - Bit of an issue. Have a 2003 1.8 S petrol Freelander, had been using quite alot of water, and then I drove 5 minutes up the road, and back about an hour later after topping up with water. I woke up this morning to find my car sat in a pool of coolant all over the drive. It looks like the water has come from somewhere near the back bottom of the engine. the reservour is dry. Oil is still jet black. The temperature was really cold last night around -4. Any one got any ideas what this could be???

Would really appreciate your advice

Click to expand...

it could be the gasket on the intake

Hi Popeye, have you been able to find the source of your coolant leak? My 1.8 Freelander, 2000 model, started off like that, extremely hard to find leak, I swapped numerous hoses, etc, until I researched more and more and found it.. The reason it leaks when your at an incline is that it's coming from the head gasket area, the cylinder head bolts have lost torque as the original oil rail is weak. The way to fix this is to renew the head gasket to the MLS type and absolutely renew the oil rail as well. Land Rover, in 2005, released an uprated strengthened oil rail for the Freelander to combat this developing problem. Here's a video I youtubed of the project. Also use Hylomar sealant on the new head gasket (2 coats each side of shim and gasket, 2 coats on engine block face, nil coat/s on cylinder head face). The UK being a colder climate than say, here Australia, you can possibly still continue to drive your Freelander normally so long as it doesn't overheat, but so long as your coolant is able to leak when your parked at an incline, it means the system has a leak and isn't pressurising correctly, and you risk overheating. This video is a link to my project of fixing this issue which unfairly taints the 1.8 Freelander. 1.8K Freelander Head Gasket Renewal and Overheating Fix - YouTube

I forgot to address your situation specifically, the reason it leaks at an incline and not when your parked on straight ground, is that the engine block/cylinder head coolant passages and not filled with coolant to capacity due to a hole in the system at the same area somewhere (head gasket area) and the level of coolant is down as opposed to having flooded the engine block/head coolant passages entirely when it pressurises correctly. Consequently, it will leak when you park at a decline or incline as the existing level of coolant in the coolant passages in the cylinder head + engine block are forced to the edge which is where the gaps or holes first developed when the cylinder head bolts lose torque on the head gasket and lost clamping load. Trust me, it happened to me.