Terra Ero
Member
- Posts
- 97
1996 110 Defender 300Tdi. 167k miles. In use 7 days a week.
Any thoughts on this? The coolant kept needing topped up roughly about every 3 weeks, but I couldn't find a leak. Added some leak sealer in the end as simply could not discover where it was leaking from (based on the logic that when it finally gets big enough to see, then I'll know, but meantime can keep using the vehicle since I'm self employed so time off the road means no pay). This went on for a few months, then the water pump gave up the ghost, so I was guessing a minor leak maybe from there (leaked at the spindle when it became noisy) that had been too small to see, so I've replaced that. But I'm still losing water, now it's like the expansion tank is boiling over, with water spattering out from the cap. I have run the engine with the cap off and there's no bubbling like I've seen before with blown gaskets. The oil is completely water free, (no white gloop or emulsioning) and there's no white smoke. Water temp shows normal when driving, but if you turn it on, the heater air is so hot you cannot keep you hand over the vent! I'd suspect head gasket because of the pressure in the water system but for the fact there's none of the classic symptoms of white smoke or water in the oil. I'm wondering if in fact it's simply boiling due to failed radiator cap not holding the pressure (new one ordered as it's only about £4 to find this out)... but then can't understand why the temp gauge goes up at the same time/speed it always does, then sits on normal (just below halfway) as always, yet I'm getting very hot air from the heater, so there is clearly really hot water somewhere in the system. Any thoughts ?
Any thoughts on this? The coolant kept needing topped up roughly about every 3 weeks, but I couldn't find a leak. Added some leak sealer in the end as simply could not discover where it was leaking from (based on the logic that when it finally gets big enough to see, then I'll know, but meantime can keep using the vehicle since I'm self employed so time off the road means no pay). This went on for a few months, then the water pump gave up the ghost, so I was guessing a minor leak maybe from there (leaked at the spindle when it became noisy) that had been too small to see, so I've replaced that. But I'm still losing water, now it's like the expansion tank is boiling over, with water spattering out from the cap. I have run the engine with the cap off and there's no bubbling like I've seen before with blown gaskets. The oil is completely water free, (no white gloop or emulsioning) and there's no white smoke. Water temp shows normal when driving, but if you turn it on, the heater air is so hot you cannot keep you hand over the vent! I'd suspect head gasket because of the pressure in the water system but for the fact there's none of the classic symptoms of white smoke or water in the oil. I'm wondering if in fact it's simply boiling due to failed radiator cap not holding the pressure (new one ordered as it's only about £4 to find this out)... but then can't understand why the temp gauge goes up at the same time/speed it always does, then sits on normal (just below halfway) as always, yet I'm getting very hot air from the heater, so there is clearly really hot water somewhere in the system. Any thoughts ?
