Freelander TD4 2006 Coolant Leak - Query

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Cobby44

Cobby44

Member
Posts
51
Location
Kings Lynn
Good Afternoon,

I have had a coolant leak on my FL1 TD4 06 for a while now, maybe 3-4 months & I've just been managing it by topping up when required. I recently found a garage were Land Rover specialists so 3 weeks ago I decided to book it in to be fixed. TODAY was that day. I knew of these through a work colleague who passed last year. When I first arrived this sure rang true as there were all kinds of LR parked up. I am writing this post after having it fixed & paid for.

They advised me that the leak was coming from the thermostat housing & that it needed replacing. I'm not mechanically minded much when it comes to cars so I'm in the hands of the pro's however when it comes to maintenance & cleaning my car then I'm on it, I hate a dirty car. I appreciate they're specialists & they did advise that they weren't the cheapest. I'd lost trust in the garage that I was using (for convenience) round the corner from where I work hence the change.

When asked how much approximately it would cost this morning when i dropped my car off, I was told it'd be 4-5 hours work & approx £280+vat in parts. I was then told the list of the parts inc £££ (less the pennies). These are... (as listed on invoice)

Crank Pulley £120
Bolt Crank £8
Thermostat £52
O Ring £4
Belt £15
Drive Belt £12
Water Pump £60
Anti Freeze £4
Studlock £2
Cleaner/Grease £4
All +vat.

He advised that the crank pulley was worn but it wasn't the worst he had seen, hence it needed replacing.

WORK CARRIED OUT
Stripped & replaced water pump. Replaced thermostat housing. Stripped & Replaced worn front crank pulley and drive belts. Re-filled with anti-freeze.

If this all needs doing to cure the coolant leak then great happy days. But I can't help but think I didn't need the crank pulley & could've saved £150 & an hours labour? Is this something that could've waited until a problem arose? It just seems an awful lot for a coolant leak. Either tat or I'm not up to date on what costs what nowadays.

All in this came to over £600. Thoughts?
 
If you're not in a position to check the components for wear and damage, then you're at the mercy of the garage.
It is known that the crankshaft pulley can fail, but as you didn't check it before hand, it's impossible to tell if it actually needed changing.
An hour seems excessive for a garage to charge, as providing the bolt comes out, it's a 10 minute job.

The thermostat is a ballache 4 hour job to change, but it's normally only a 50 Pence O ring that actually leaks. However the thermostat is known to fail, and needs removing to change the leaking O ring, so it makes sense to replace the thermostat, while it's off.
Was the water pump leaking? It's very unusual for those to fail, and they definitely don't need replacing as part of the thermostat change.
If it were me doing the job, I'd only replace the thermostat as it was coming off to replace the leaking O ring, and that would be that.
I'd not replace the water pump unless it too was leaking, which they normally don't.
 
Nodge68 said:
If you're not in a position to check the components for wear and damage, then you're at the mercy of the garage.
It is known that the crankshaft pulley can fail, but as you didn't check it before hand, it's impossible to tell if it actually needed changing.
An hour seems excessive for a garage to charge, as providing the bolt comes out, it's a 10 minute job.

The thermostat is a ballache 4 hour job to change, but it's normally only a 50 Pence O ring that actually leaks. However the thermostat is known to fail, and needs removing to change the leaking O ring, so it makes sense to replace the thermostat, while it's off.
Was the water pump leaking? It's very unusual for those to fail, and they definitely don't need replacing as part of the thermostat change.
If it were me doing the job, I'd only replace the thermostat as it was coming off to replace the leaking O ring, and that would be that.
I'd not replace the water pump unless it too was leaking, which they normally don't.
Click to expand...

Nodge,

I wouldn't have the access to find out if the pulley was worn so I've just got to go with it in that instance. I know it's within the same area as the thermostat housing but I just can't see how the leak would affect the pulley.

I guess it's just a bit of "it is what it is" & I won't dwell on it but I'm not made of money. He was a bit reluctant to see me when I went to collect it, just left me to pay with the lady in the office & that was it.

I find it very hard to find a garage that I fully trust you know ‍♂️
 
Cobby44 said:
Nodge,

I wouldn't have the access to find out if the pulley was worn so I've just got to go with it in that instance. I know it's within the same area as the thermostat housing but I just can't see how the leak would affect the pulley.

I guess it's just a bit of "it is what it is" & I won't dwell on it but I'm not made of money. He was a bit reluctant to see me when I went to collect it, just left me to pay with the lady in the office & that was it.

I find it very hard to find a garage that I fully trust you know ‍♂️
Click to expand...
I assume this is a pulley with a damper in it, and if they fail, it can cause expensive damage.

Try and look at it from a garage's point of view.

If they do a job that needs a lot of dismantling, they will tend to replace everything that they remove, because a worst case scenario for them is that they do the job, charge the punter best part of a grand, and then the punter comes back in a week with, say, a failed crankshaft pulley, and says, " You had access to this last week, and it must have been dodgy, so why didn't you change it ?".

So then they have the options of doing a lot of dismantling again, and fixing damage caused by the pulley failure, and covering the cost, or trying to get another hefty wedge out of the punter. And the modern world being what it is, the punter will likely go on social media and blacken their name all over the place.

One of the many reasons a lot of garages don't want to work on old cars now, they prefer modern stuff they can plug into a computer, which will tell them what is wrong, and what they need to change.
 
If it's any conciliation, my TD4 has gone through two crankshaft pulleys in the last 80k miles. And as Nodge has said, the stat change is a real pain. I think the book time to change it is around four hours so that wouldn't be cheap just on it's own. At least you've got peice of mind that the bits you've had done should now last the life the vehicle. There will be plenty more other stuff to come along to dent the wallet in time. ;)
 
Cobby44 said:
Good Afternoon,

I have had a coolant leak on my FL1 TD4 06 for a while now, maybe 3-4 months & I've just been managing it by topping up when required. I recently found a garage were Land Rover specialists so 3 weeks ago I decided to book it in to be fixed. TODAY was that day. I knew of these through a work colleague who passed last year. When I first arrived this sure rang true as there were all kinds of LR parked up. I am writing this post after having it fixed & paid for.

They advised me that the leak was coming from the thermostat housing & that it needed replacing. I'm not mechanically minded much when it comes to cars so I'm in the hands of the pro's however when it comes to maintenance & cleaning my car then I'm on it, I hate a dirty car. I appreciate they're specialists & they did advise that they weren't the cheapest. I'd lost trust in the garage that I was using (for convenience) round the corner from where I work hence the change.

When asked how much approximately it would cost this morning when i dropped my car off, I was told it'd be 4-5 hours work & approx £280+vat in parts. I was then told the list of the parts inc £££ (less the pennies). These are... (as listed on invoice)

Crank Pulley £120
Bolt Crank £8
Thermostat £52
O Ring £4
Belt £15
Drive Belt £12
Water Pump £60
Anti Freeze £4
Studlock £2
Cleaner/Grease £4
All +vat.

He advised that the crank pulley was worn but it wasn't the worst he had seen, hence it needed replacing.

WORK CARRIED OUT
Stripped & replaced water pump. Replaced thermostat housing. Stripped & Replaced worn front crank pulley and drive belts. Re-filled with anti-freeze.

If this all needs doing to cure the coolant leak then great happy days. But I can't help but think I didn't need the crank pulley & could've saved £150 & an hours labour? Is this something that could've waited until a problem arose? It just seems an awful lot for a coolant leak. Either tat or I'm not up to date on what costs what nowadays.

All in this came to over £600. Thoughts?
Click to expand...
Hi, did you ask to see all the parts that were changed ? The old parts are YOUR property so I would ALWAYS insist that a garage keeps the 'worn parts' prior to work being carried out so that they can show you where they were worn & why they needed changing (obviously this wouldn't to apply to oils, fluids etc).
When I worked in the motorcycle trade I used to bag up every part I changed to show the customer & run through the bill, most just used to say not to worry but at least they had the offer to see what & why they were being charged. (I also used to write or scribe date/mileage & initial ANY part that was changed where possible,(my FL1 & D2 are covered in marked parts:)). Like Nodge says the thermostat is at least half a days work so changing the whole stat whilst your there is a no brainer.
 
From what you have said, and from what others have said, and from experience of being part of this forum for a number of years... I'd say the garage did a good job. As has been said, these are parts that regularly fail so there's a good chance they were getting to that stage and being in there doing that work I'd say what they did was good professionalism.

They said they weren't the cheapest, but their hourly rate does not look to bad and the costs look to come from being thourough.

If you're not inclined/able to do work yourself, and you can afford that level of service, I'd say you've found yourself a decent garage.

The only caveat being what has already been said - hopefully the parts they installed are of decent quality.
 
There's some good answers here, which give a broad range on points of view.

I'm lucky as I'm in the position to check everything myself, and only replace the parts that are needed at the time, however I do sometimes forget that not everyone is in that position.:oops:

As Turboman has said, a garage will tend to replace anything that they feel is suspect, simply because they know that anything suspect in the vicinity could well fail soon after you left.

I don't think the garage charges were excessive, for the work that was done, especially as they took 5 hours to do it.
Garages now charge anything from £60 to £180 per hour, depending on the type of garage it is, so a £600 bill isn't too bad.
For comparison, I've seen garages near me charge FL2 owners £700 for a timing belt change, which is literally a 2 hour job, with £100 in parts, so I don't think you bill was excessive.

I would agree with what was said about the old parts. I would ask for the old parts to be put in the boot, which is what I ask my mother to request, when she takes her car to the garage, unless it's tyres, exhausts or filters.
This way you know the garage have at least removed old components, so presumably fitted new replacements. They can also show you why they considered the parts to be beyond further use.

Hopefully you'll now have a happy Hippo, which won't present you with more bills for decent amount of time. :)
 
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