Freelander 1 Black smoke. loosing coolant.

Help. My TD4 (54 plate) is loosing coolant, It keeps emptying the header tank. It has been blowing black smoke for a few weeks now, and the engine management light has come on. I topped up the coolant today, did about 30 miles in it, and the coolant tank was empty.

Can anyone think of what this may be, Oil is fine, and drives okay, just lots of smoke when your foot is down and the turbo is on. No real loss of power though.

Cheers,
Warren.

Black smoke check the PCV filter, intercooler hose for pin holes splits , also the EGR a stuck caked up EGR can throw up lots of trouble, also check hoses from EGR to vacuum solenoid, as for the water loss check the tank it's self for cracking or splits, then check the Y connector at the front of the engine pics below the gasket can fail on these.

I had decent amount of success with this coolant dye. Got mine from theBay with a UV torch. Glowed like a good'un.

I did see a small amount of sludge on the oil cap, but it wasnt there the other day when I checked the oil.

That can be due to condensation if it is a small amount after a short run.
What about the oil on the dipstick?
Any white smoke/steam when the engine is running?
Any bubbling in the coolant expansion tank?

davidsmith1307 said:

That can be due to condensation if it is a small amount after a short run.
What about the oil on the dipstick?
Any white smoke/steam when the engine is running?
Any bubbling in the coolant expansion tank?

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No, nothing like that, just an empty expansion tank. Which takes about 3/4 of a litre to fill up again/
Black smoke when you put your foot down, did an obdII check and it said fault with turbo solenoid. The engine light goes off and on as it pleases. I will check all the pipework at the weekend, and I've got a replacement solenoid I can fit. Is it worth upgrading the crank oil filter with one ot the uprated BMW ones whilst I'm at it?

The PCV filter? That seems to be the recommendation.
Check the Y shaped pipe (on the front of the block under the inlet manifold? - someone may correct me) where the gasket can go and you can lose quite a volume.
Check the front footwells - if they are damp then it could be the heater matrix.

I will, and thanks for all of your help David.

also check the back of the engine where the metal water pipe run it goes onto your thermostat housing if you have summer coolant you should see the evidence .hope this helps

Checked all the pipes, cant see anything, changed the crank case breather for one of the BMW upgraded ones, (that was messy), no coolant in the tank, so I topped it back up, with a litre, which just disappeared into the system, leaving me with an empty header tank. Checked under the car and none has leaked out. Checked the oil level on the dipstick which looks like it has risen, no water on the dipstick though, and the car still drives okay. Any more ideas?

Wazz72 said:

Checked all the pipes, cant see anything, changed the crank case breather for one of the BMW upgraded ones, (that was messy), no coolant in the tank, so I topped it back up, with a litre, which just disappeared into the system, leaving me with an empty header tank. Checked under the car and none has leaked out. Checked the oil level on the dipstick which looks like it has risen, no water on the dipstick though, and the car still drives okay. Any more ideas?

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Keep topping up with water and checking the dipstick level carefully. If the oil is rising, it was knackered anyway and you've got nothing to lose.
You'll have to drop the lot anyway before recomissioning the vehicle and it'll be fatal if there /is/ water in the oil when run.

Remember the dipstick only measures the top inch of oil and oil floats on water...

Sounds like a horribly broken head gasket, oil cooler or something in the castings has failed?

Actually, I've just back read this thread and an idea popped in my head, is the turbo water cooled on the TD4?

Given that you've got sludge and you're getting turbo solenoid faults, my money is on either:
a) if the turbo is watercooled, the seals/housing has cracked and it's letting water into the turbo and oil - your turbo is screwed
b) something else like an oil cooler or head gasket has let water into the oil, the turbo has burned out because it's not getting enough lubrication - your turbo is screwed

Both of these would explain the black smoke as it's fuelling for turbo spool and the turbo is refusing to spool up because it's shagged.

Doom doom doom doom doom.

Then again it could just be something simple I've not thought about.

When I was driving it last week the turbo was kicking in though? And you could feel the pull on it.

My mechanic has had a look at it this morning and said: there was a vacuum pipe popped of the turbo (possibly the black smoke), the seal on the inter-cooler and thermostat needed replacing. The thermostat leaked water when cold, but looked like once it had warmed up it sealed. Regards to the oil rising, he thinks it could be a faulty injector that is leaking diesel into the oil, as he said the oil seemed a bit thin.

Anyone seen this before?