R

ridgewood12

New Member
Hi,
I need a little advise. I've just picked up my first Land Rover 90. Td200 truck. However I had to pick it up from North Cornwall and drive it the 250 odd miles back home. I noticed when I bought it that the radiator didn't looked too clever. On my motorway journey home I did notice that when I got over 60-65 MPH the temperature gauge climbs, sitting to the exterme right of the white and creeping into the black at times. When I decrease my speed to 55-60, it stays in the white but only just.

One more thing, the landy has a 8 ton winch with the number plate mounted on the top, so approximatly 1/5th of the radiator is bloked by the winch and number plate. My guess is that the radiator needs replacing, but i've read a few posts that suggest this may be normal with Landrovers or Turbo Desiel to run so hot.....With little experiece or these things I don't want to shell out money if it doesn't need doing...

Do I need to replace my radiator or is there something else I should be looking at

thanks JB
 
No, it shouldn't run that hot.
Is it a genuine 200TDi Defender or does it have a 200TDi Disco engine fitted?

Either way, start by taking out the radiator and giving it a good clean, inside and out.
The number plate shouldn't make much difference, neither should the fan, provided the Radiator isn't clogged up.
 
No the Coolent level is good, kept checkin on the way back and checked again once it was cold from the radiator plug. Doesn't seem to be loosing any water.
 
Mine runs at between 1/2 and 5/8 on the gauge, depending on ambient temp and loading - that's without a fan and with a winch.

Have a good check around for leaks and perished hoses while you're at it.
Also check yer fan belt is in good nick and isn't slipping.
 
New rad is about 100 notes. If the fins are flaking away then i would replace it, better to do that than cook the engine which will be big money.
 
I see what you say about genuine defender 200, but is it the ORIGINAL defender 200 - is the landy a defender or a 90, what reg year is it?
 
If it's not loosing any water, there isn't a major problem really. just flush the system (hose pipe tightly sealed into pipe entering engine block), and then disconnect the pipe leaving the radiator. Let the water run through the system for a good half an hour or so and then flush it in the opposite direction. Whether or not you have your engine ticking over to aid the water flow through the pump is up to you, but you might find that the system clears a little quicker if you have your engine ticking over, with the idle speed set slightly higher so it's almost as if it's being revved.

Make sure that the engine is not running when you back flush, and you may even benefit from slackening the fan belt so that there is no strain on the water pump, but only when flushing in the opposite direction.

-Pos
 
Thanks POS, the top 2/3rds of the Rad has a high degree of fin demage, so It looks like a new RAD is in order, I will also follow your advice and flush the system...
 
Thanks everyone for all your advice and help, you've answered my question that a new RAD seems to be the root cause, and flushing out the system would be benifical....I'm a first timer to this forum but your help and insight is well recieved......thanks again JB
 
ridgewood12 said:
Thanks everyone for all your advice and help, you've answered my question that a new RAD seems to be the root cause, and flushing out the system would be benifical....I'm a first timer to this forum but your help and insight is well recieved......thanks again JB
Click to expand...

Glad you found your problem before you knackered your injun! There is always help to be found here, I'm sure it is many peoples first port of call! Hope to see you on here again soon.
 
On the way home from my last trip to salisbury my landy crept up into the red. I checked the coolant level. It was fine. It rarely gets near to the centre position even when running on mainly veg oil so this was highlu unusual. My winch, number plate and l.e.d. lights obscure 50% of my grille. I had a quick look and noticed the rad and intercooler were completely blocked. I gave it a quick hose down the next day. The next couple of times I was out and about in it I noticed the temperature was still up around 3/4's. I took it into work this friday night and spent an hour gently hosing it down. The amount of silt that came out was astonishing. None of my work colleagues would beleive that it was only the rad and intercooler I had cleaned. They all rekoned I had washed the entire vehicle. It now runs at the same low temp as it did before. Blocked or damaged fins definately make a difference.
 
Before I changed my rad my engine showed between half and three quarters on the temp gauge so I put some central heating sludge remover in the system and drove around for a week to loosen any deposits.
I then took the old rad off and on inspection many of the fins had corroded and simply turned to dust when touched.
I flushed the engine and hoses in both directions until I got clean water every time and while I was at it I also changed the heater matrix and fitted new hoses all round. I had a new thermostat so used it but the old one was still servicable. Not cheap but peace of mind for a good few years as a cooked TD5 is expensive. I got all of the bits from Craddocks on eBay.
The rad was 80 quid, the heater matrix 28 quid and the hoses very expensive for what they are but you have to have the right ones and Halfords dont stock them.
Now my TD5 runs well below half on the temp gauge and my heater actually works. I also removed the viscous fan and used the existing electric fan from the air con on a manual switch. I dumped the air con because it was crap, needed yearly re-gassing and took up too much room in the cab.
I have yet to switch on the leccy fan even after charging up the motorway and sitting in traffic. The standard landy rad is more than adequate when it is clean and not full of sludge.
 
Something my engine has done on a run this evening is actually cool right down at some stages, which I find strange considering it usually stays pretty firmly just under half way (2.5 N/A). It went as low as below 1/4 at one point which it's never done before! New sender me thinks.
 
Just had exactly the same trouble with my 200TDI, and it's the early one with the EXPENSIVE radiator & oil cooler combination, (£240) did all the radflush stuff, didn't do a thing! you can actually see the limescale through the plughole. It must be like concrete!
did some phoning round, and found a firm that do a garentee'd exchange rad with new core for £110. It's going in tomorrow!!!!
 
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