Oh, bollocks!!!

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johnlad

johnlad

Well-Known Member
Posts
5,628
Location
Blackpool
After a day off roading at Briercliffe Quarry today i was on the motorway and lost power, pulled onto hard shoulder to find a hole in the back of the radiator and ****ing water out, whilst waiting at the side of the M65 a 90 stopped and towed me to the next junction whilst wating there this fella went home to drop his wife off collected his TD5 disco and returned to tow me back to Blackpool(about 35 miles), i can't thank him enough and i can't think of any other car marque who's owners would do that.
Now if i fit a new radiator will i have been lucky enough to escape without any cylinder head damage?:confused: its a 1999 td5 defender 110
 
What a decent bloke :) As for getting away without damaging your cylinder head, you might not be so lucky. It's the loss of power which makes me think there has been some damage done because generally speaking if your'e looking coolant, it won't effect your power. It's only when the coolant has been lost and the head has warped or your piston rings have melted that you start to loose power. I'd get it leak or compression tested which should show you what state the engine is in. It doesn't sound good though I'm afraid. Watching the temperature gauge is something that I do meticulously to ensure that things like this cant happen.

-Pos
 
im currently having what i believe to be grounding issues with my temp gauge, so when it flys up to the red area, the ecu goes into limp mode (creating loss of power) could be what happened you??
 
-Defender110- said:
im currently having what i believe to be grounding issues with my temp gauge, so when it flys up to the red area, the ecu goes into limp mode (creating loss of power) could be what happened you??
Click to expand...

i'd love to think that, but i have a hole in the radiator and was steaming like Casey Jones on acid
 
pos said:
What a decent bloke :) As for getting away without damaging your cylinder head, you might not be so lucky. It's the loss of power which makes me think there has been some damage done because generally speaking if your'e looking coolant, it won't effect your power. It's only when the coolant has been lost and the head has warped or your piston rings have melted that you start to loose power. I'd get it leak or compression tested which should show you what state the engine is in. It doesn't sound good though I'm afraid. Watching the temperature gauge is something that I do meticulously to ensure that things like this cant happen.

-Pos
Click to expand...

As it's a td5 with a management system it will lose power (limp mode) if it gets too hot.

-Defender110- said:
im currently having what i believe to be grounding issues with my temp gauge, so when it flys up to the red area, the ecu goes into limp mode (creating loss of power) could be what happened you??
Click to expand...

It may be worth your while trying another temp sensor. It could be yours is faulty
 
Last edited:
Exactly - I'm sure if you fill it up with water and start it up it will run just fine until it gets hot again - may be worth doing this before you put a new radiator into make sure the engine does not need to come out. If it goes into limp mode the dash should light up like a Christmas tree with warning lights.

Don't leave it running long enough for the water level to drop!!!!
 
right update so far, ive patched the rad with quick steel putty and had it running for 2hours temp stays below 1/2 way no smoke or steam when revved, gonna fit a new rad tomorrow and take for a drive, i'll monitor coolant levels over the upcoming days but i've got the chance of a second hand head so i think i will buy it and keep it on standby.
 
johnlad said:
i've got the chance of a second hand head so i think i will buy it and keep it on standby.
Click to expand...

Not a bad thing to have hanging around if you don't use it i'm sure someone will... Was the management light on when you lost power? If the orange light went then the ECU will have limped it before the damage happened... If you lost power in normal function (no lights on dash board) then you could be in for a new head.

Generally the ECU should have saved you...
 
Even in limp mode with no coolant your going to do damage quite quickly, but the damage will be most likely catastrophic failure ie con rods appearing through the side of the engine.

However as the oil cooler is still intact (this does nt rust for obvious reasons) this will have helped keep it cool for a bit longer as well.

It realy depends how low the coolant got before you stopped, hopefully if the emu detected the header tank as being empty it may have gone into limp mode from that.

Just think yourself lucky that you had a TD5 as any other engine would have just kept going until destruction occured (unless you look at the temp guage and switch it off!)
 
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