Overheating on Emissions Test

Sue1962 said:

She's one of the family now and have done so much under the bonnet last year it wouldn't be worthwhile getting rid

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I keep telling myself that, at least you can saddle up if it's terminal !

That would certainly put a whole new meaning to 'green travel' lololol

Well we now know what the problem is. And it's nothing to do with the HG yipppeeeee But it is an expensive problem or could be. There is a crack in the base of the radiator which only shows up when vehicle gets up to temperature. Therefore have been advised by my mechanically minded friend to pour Radweld (or equivalent) into cold radiator tomorrow morning and contact local scrap yard to see if they have 2nd hand radiator in stock. Have also googled 1st choice spares - so fingers and toes all crossed for a cheap solution.

Thanks once again for your comments and advice guys, as usual they were much appreciated :clap2:

Radweld is the devils work!

It's only a get home solution, if you do add some, source a cheap rad asap and flush the system thoroughly before refilling.

I did throw several eggs into an old mini rad, shell and all on the 3rd egg

There's 2 different rads showing for the 1.8... £95 for the older and £155 for the newer (+vat) may make more sense than sticking a used one on for a short lifespan

Thanks guys will take both comments on board.

k seal is the additve to use not radweld

Well I didnt use anything to seal the rad. Went on line and googled 1st Choice Spares, got lucky and found 2nd hand rad which I have ordered and it arrived today. Taken day off work tomorrow and am hoping hubby & I can fit it Have been topping up with water on the short distances that I have had to drive until we can get to it.

So, calling all you experts raise: The Haynes manual is NOT that informative to be honest. It just says Drain the cooling system. Remove the electric cooling fan assembly. At the top right-hand side of the radiator loosen the clip and disconnect the expansion tank hose from the outlet stub. Loosen the clip and disconnect the top hose from the top right-hand side of the radiator. Unscrew the retaining pins from the top of the bonnedt slam panel. Remove the radiator and recover the lower mounting rubbers.

Sounds simple I feel that there must be a simpler way of doing this?????:doh:

follow the instructions and it does just what it says on the tin, 10 minutes out, 15 minutes back, but pay special attention to bleeding all air when you refill coolant, 2 bleed screws removal, one lurking under air cleaner, screws into a steel pipe at end of cyl. head, the other one to remove is in the heater hose coming out of the bulkhead, make sure there is no air coming out in the coolant before replacing them, and turn your heater control to hot.

You'll be fine, those retaining pins on the slam panel are a nightmare, sort of a half twist with the centre bit with holding the outer lugs.

They don't even hold the rad securely, all FL rads move back and forward a fraction.

As Freelance mentioned above bleed the system properly, open the 8mm flange nut on the coolant elbow when filling up, its just under the distributor. Close off when it runs smooth with no air bubbles, sometimes easier to remove airbox to see it.

leave heater matrix valve open until the coolant reaches full mark, pic below, it only needs to be hand tight when closed.

When you have warmed the engine open the heater matrix valve and lift/stretch the hose so the valve is at the highest point. Should draw all air to the top.

When your done, squeeze the top rad hose a few times and listen for the small rattle of the jiggle valve. This valve should remove any residual air from the head, plus rad evaporator tube returning to the coolant expansion bottle removes any fine bubbles within the rad itself.

It's not a bad system

Thanks you guys We are going to give it a go later today. Will keep you posted

Yippeeeee!!!!! Radiator done, no bleeding required, no air, all running perfectly. The only slight hicup we had was that the fan assembly wouldn't come away from the radiator that was to be fitted. Hubby had to hacksaw through the bolts. But it didn't matter as all went well.

All booked in for 2nd attempt at MOT this Thursday.

Thanks Northern Irelander for your advice and thanks Freelance for your tips as well. Both were much appreciated.

Just one small question - not to do with the rad. On driving home this evening, the SRS light stayed on. It says in the Freelander owners guide that it's to do with the air bag restraint unit and that I need to 'seek specialist advice immediately'!!!!!!!!! Do hope that doesn't mean going to Rider Landrover (our local dealer).

well done,

Wot no bleeding! Just keep an eye on levels and fluctuating temp gauge.

So what have you done to it now?

SRS will have a loose connection somewhere, sort before the next MOT, the barstewards will fail that, just when you thought it was over!!

Try the wire connector under each front seat, for the seatbelt pressure tube runners, failing that disconnect your battery, after 15min remove the steering wheel centre part (airbag)
IIRC its a couple of torx screws underneath at the back (8 pointed thingies)

check the yellow 2 pin connector inside hasn't come loose.

Thanks NI I knew you would steer me in the right direction (pardon the pun lolol). I don't do these things on purpose, honest

At least it has an engine that's possible to work on WITHOUT the garage bills !!!!!

Have been keeping eye on levels and temperature gauge and all seems hunky dorey since Saturday

Thanks again xx

Sue1962 said:

Thanks NI I knew you would steer me in the right direction (pardon the pun lolol). I don't do these things on purpose, honest

At least it has an engine that's possible to work on WITHOUT the garage bills !!!!!

Have been keeping eye on levels and temperature gauge and all seems hunky dorey since Saturday

Thanks again xx

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You're welcome,

At least you're on the case or getting the OH to do it

Ok - so we now failed the MOT on emissions and failed rear numberplate light

So have been advised that a good idea would be to:-

• renew air filter
• buy additive that you can put in the fuel
• run for 20 miles then have tested again

or all of the above lolololol

Oh and buy a new light bulb of course.

I have all toes/fingers crossed that it's not the Cat that has blown as this was renewed November 2008 at the MOT

I suppose on the bright side, they are NOT doing the work and charging me huge prices for things that I can fix (well hubby can) and they have said that they will NOT be charging me for the re-test. Oh AND they will only have to carry out the emissions test and not do the complete MOT again. So maybe this time it will be third time lucky

Did you get a print off of the emissions test ? If you did please post it up as its a great help in diagnosing why it failed.

eightinavee

Have attached (am hoping) emissions printout as suggested.

I do believe the cat is not doing it's job properly, the engine is obviously fine as the HC is well within the limit (high HC is normally due to incomplete combustion) but high CO I think is the cat not doing its stuff with the gas properly. Was the cat one of those budget type ones or a proper genuine one? I think it's been mentioned on here before about the budget type ones not lasting very long and in the long run it probably being cheaper to pay out for a genuine one.

Ok,where did the Cat come from, looks very much like its not doing its job.To prove it you need to just check the Oxygen sensor is switching.Get hubby to get the multimeter fired up and connect it to the black wire of the four that come out of the sensor iteslf and to earth.On a low voltage range the meter should show the voltage cycling between 0 and about 0.8v around once a second when revving at a steady 2500rpm with the engine hot.
If its doing this happily then your cat is toast.Not uncommon for aftermarket cats to get a car through its Mot just after fitting then fail after a years use.The K series engine and its Mems EFI need all the help it can get from a decent Cat to pass emissions testing.I recently had one in from another garage with a new cheap cat on it that had no effect on the exhaust gases at all.The monolith inside it was less than half the volume of the original LR one.