Constant overheating???

Hi,

I own a 2001 Land Rover Freelander 1.8.
It's been an absolute dream until recently when it kept losing coolant. Sometimes it was fine, then other times I would have to completely fill it up. I took it to my local mechanic (trusted for many years) who discovered the header tank was cracked - this replaced I drove away...
2 days later I was back down there as it was bubbling like a boiling kettle from the header tank although the temp gauge showed no signs of overheating. This appeared to be an airlock - this sorted I drove away only for the same thing to happen again. This time they checked the radiator, water pump and some valve coming from the bottom of the radiator, but with no success.
I have owned this vehicle for 2 years now and have receipts to show the head gasket was 'done' 2 1/2 years ago. My mechanic has block tested 2 or 3 times, but no faults are showing up... he is now stumped, but reluctant to do the head gasket based on this being done so recently (I have only driven 15,000 miles since buying the car)
Anyone who has experienced similar problems... HELP!!! I have been without my vehicle for 2 weeks now and am going stir crazy!!!

Thanks in advance

Sam

think you need to read posts in gaylander section and get a thick skin fast . hgf

when you filled it did you take the small tube of the header tank and blow into it this releases a valve that lets water into the cylinder head.hope this helps

Thanks for your quick sensible response teddywood 1. NO! When I say I had to completely refill it that was only the header tank emptying - I could still see liquid, but on most occassions it would just drop below the minimum mark on the header tank. Do you still think this could be a possibility?

yes just try it you never know fill the header tank up to the point of the very small hose take it off the header tank but be carefull a pair of pliars and you should squeez the clip and pull it backwards then carefully pull the hose off and just blow into it .

Gosh!!!!!!!!!!!! a 1.8 petrol Hippo overheating, not heard of that one before.

The inlet manifold gasket could be leaking. This is worth changing anyway

Whilst it is off knock the ball bearing out of the jiggle valve this will ensure it doesn't stick in future.

It's possible that all that overheating has caused Head Gasket Failure and now exhaust gasses are leaking into the coolant and causing airlocks in the system which leads to yet more overheating. This is exactly what happened to mine. The uprated head gasket doesn't fix the problem entirely, if it overheats really badly due to a leak in the cooling system it will fail again. If you do a search here you will find absolutely tons of information on this .

Thanks guys...
All fixed! It was a little thermostat at the back of the engine! So small yet caused a major problem believe it or not. NOT head gasket - I'm pleased to say that my mechanic refused to explore that route because the block tests didn't show a problem and so it saved me a packet on the bill.

good news

while they had it dismantled they could've fitted the modified thermostat though.

do a search and have a look