brown sludge

The coolant level slowly drops in the expansion tank and also brown sludge floats on the surface of the coolant? Temp is normal and engine starts and runs ok. No sludge in filler cap or dipstick? Been like this for three or four months now since I replaced the coolant totally.

either its had head probs in past and wasnt flushed out well or its about to have one

hmmn, gonna use all me special psychic powers on this one...

1.8 petrol ?

if its a 1.8 petty then as above id suspect a head going.
if its a TD4 then its pretty rare the heads going - if you are getting sludge in the tank and its brown not black id suspect a possible hole in your transmission or gearbox cooler.
May be worth removing the filler plug on your IRD or gearbox to see if a watery sludge pours out...usually you would only get a few drips of oil out as the plug level is the actual fill level.
My mates TD4 did the same but the sludge was black and he wasnt losing water or had any unusaly engine/smoke behaviour which pointed to his engine oil cooler had a slight hole in it.


Hope this helps,

Hi
Just changed oil in ird box when i replaced the vc so its ok. Thinking it could be not being flushed out prop. Are there two types of coolant which dont mix???

Im with OP on this 1.8 petrol = head gasket

butty said:

Hi
Just changed oil in ird box when i replaced the vc so its ok. Thinking it could be not being flushed out prop. Are there two types of coolant which dont mix???

Click to expand...

I dunno for sure but of the freelanders I have owned they have all used the OAT (Organic acid technology) coolant. This comes in a yellow liquid form and once in the system with your water it appears orange to the eye. The other type is the old glycol blue stuff. Only difference is the fact that the new OAT claims to have to be changed over a much longer period of time compared to the blue stuff.

Whichever way you look at it - neither should be mixed.. it is a big NO NO.

Have you a 1.8petrol or is it a diesel? TD4 or D series?

he,s not going to tell us...............

Have you had the car long? if not it might have had a previous HGF and some of the sludge is still in the system. If you have had it a long time and know its history then its trouble ahead.

Mantamad said:

....... trouble ahead.

Click to expand...

but while theres moonlight and music and romance etc etc

................lets face the music and dance

butty said:

The coolant level slowly drops in the expansion tank and also brown sludge floats on the surface of the coolant? Temp is normal and engine starts and runs ok. No sludge in filler cap or dipstick? Been like this for three or four months now since I replaced the coolant totally.

Click to expand...

Did it have the sludge before you changed the coolant?

Best investigate, the k-series will drive for thousand's of miles with minor hgf showing no temp rise or starting probs, oil may rise slightly on the dipstick without full fat (mayo)

Coolant loss could be un-related, see first page of http://www.landyzone.co.uk/lz/f9/k-series-expertise-can-you-sdvise-154088.html

Again, get it checked out

soz
1.8 petrol. Everythings been ok till i changed the antifreeze to the blue stuff. Its something thats rarely needed to be topped up before. The water level does go down pretty quick now. Bought it when it had 30K on clock and its coming up to 100K. Never had the head gasket done. Thought when head gasket started to fail temp started to rise but this remains constant as its always done?

You are so forked.