Both are fairly easy on a P38, but IMHO the dash is less work. Leaks usually stop the coolant pressurising, but also allow it to boil, so eventually there will be excess pressure.What's worse, getting the dash apart to reach the heater matrix, or doing a head gasket?
There shouldn't be any Jubilee clips. The fixings should all be self-clamping spring hose clips that apply an even pressure. They are much easier to remove & replace than jubilee clips too just need to get them on & off with a pair of Flexible Wire Long Reach Hose Clamp Pliers
Agree totally. Some of the Britpart hoses i got came with jubilee clips though
Loss of power will be the ECU putting it into limp mode to protect the engine. Leaks can cause overheating due to loss of the normal pressure required to stop the coolant boiling. I have never known a RAD that just leaks a bit when hot but you never know, RAD's generally just let go if over pressurised.Bit of an update:
Did a couple of test drives, around 20-30 minutes each. No more leaking from the heater inlet, but there was in fact a very slight leak from the bottom of the radiator- seems I was wrong in my previous post as I could clearly tell it was from the rad.
Seems the car had to be pretty warm for this leak to appear as I could only see it at the end of the longest drive of the day.
Fast forward to the weekend and I headed off for a camp in the bush. 40 minute drive to first pit stop, very slight leak from rad, nothing major. Next leg of the journey was probably about 30 minutes, but mostly up hill, but some pretty decent gradients and here's where things get interesting. During one of the hills the Rover went super weak and spongy, I'd put my foot down, but all I got was viscous fan roar and minimal power. This isn't new (https://www.landyzone.co.uk/land-rover/down-on-power-when-warmed-up.390199/) but this problem hadn't surfaced for a while now.
We got to the top of the hills and to the start of the trail and yep...
View attachment 321033
Queue the on-road repairs
View attachment 321034
The new heater inlet hose was leaking, so tightened it up. Also where the heater return hose meets the expansion tank hose had a leak, which was new. And the rad was leaking more than just a bit.
Thankfully it was all downhill to the campsite so made it there fine.
The next day, we got out the bush fine- probably because the uphill to get out was done while the car was cold. Then the drive home was fine, also mostly downhill- not a single leak to be found from the 1.5hr drive.
Not sure what to take from this. Maybe all the load going up hill expanded something in the head gasket and it overpressurized? Loss of power related to this?
You'd have to do this when the engine is fully hot
I had my OBD reader on and the coolant temp didn’t get too high, unless that sensor is cooked, or maybe it got really hot in a localised area.
I put a new expansion tank on and it was easy to overtighten the cap, at which point it would pop the thread and lose pressure
yes its the thread i had issues with as well. the cap would screw on to the old (original) tank no problems, but it was easy to cross thread on the britpart tank. i think the thread must be slightly smaller than OEM which is why it would pop off if tightened too much
I don't know about the V8, but on the diesel there are 2 coolant temperature sensors, one for the gauge and the other for the ECU.
So is the OP looking at the right sensor?
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