Freelander 1 Heeeeelp! Overheating

Hello all,

Firstly, apologies for my first post being a 'help me!' type post, but sometimes that's just the way it goes!

My mother has an '03 Freelander 1 V6 in her fleet which is causing me a little bit of a headache... It overheated a while back and after being recovered home was parked up in the corner and forgotten about but now I want to get it working again and sell it as a lovely low mileage (60k) used car, rather than a spares or repairs gamble for next to nowt.

When it was recovered the head was compression tested, the coolant was sniff tested, the fans were tested and the cooling system was bled but it would still overheat. Since working on it over the past few days I noticed that the coolant was boiling and the fans weren't kicking in (I'm guessing the coolant isn't getting hot enough due to lack of pressure in the system - I think the KV6 runs at about 105/110C?). I've bled the system several times (let air out of bleed screw, run for 5 mins at idle, pump bottom rad hose, run for 7mins between idle and 3500rpm, leave to cool, run up to temp) but it keeps boiling the water at the end of the 7min cycle so I switch it off before anything boils over. I noticed that the expansion bottle had lots of hairline cracks around the neck so I purchased a brand new expansion bottle and cap from LR today and fitted them - bled the system and whilst running the engine at circa 2000rpm the bottle actually SPLIT around the seam! In my experience the pressure release cap should blow if the pressure gets too high, so would this be a faulty bottle or something more sinister? What could be causing the system to pressurise so much? There are no evident leaks or split hoses, and as I said before the head has been pressure checked and the coolant sniff tested (not an exact science, I know). Both bottom and top hoses are getting hot too so thermostat is also working.

Any help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Split that coolant bottle! Cracked / crazed coolant expansion tanks are fairly common and probably won't hold pressure. From what you've typed it suggests to me that coolant isn't being circulated. Thermostat is my suspect. Do the top & bottom rad' hoses get hot?

Thanks for the speedy reply htr. Both top and bottom hoses are getting toasty so I'm guessing that the thermostat must be opening - I also let the engine run up with the cap off and the level dropped when it got up to temp so the thermostat must be working.

IMHO - once the KV6 starts overheating, I recon its time to scrap it! You can put many many hours into fixing it and many many $ - but time and time again they just keep over heating. There's not to many threads on here about it, because there aren't to many KV6 owners on the forum - but see if you can find a thread with a happy outcome.

You're best bet is for @Nodge68 to give you some advice and motivation He's had KV6's, loves them and does not agree with my view!

I would say though, its probably worth taking that bottle and cap back for a replacement - LR give good warranty/guarantee on their spare parts. When you get a replacement - get the cap pressure tested before you install it. If you can't do it, take it to someone independent who can. I once had a poorly holding cap so a new one was purchased - but it turned out to hold a worse pressure than the old one! I'm not sure what pressure it should hold on the KV6 - you may need to do some research if nobody replies on here.

Repeat boiling and tank splitting is likely to be a HG I'm afraid. There's 2 options open to you. 1st is replace the gaskets but check the heads and liner heights carefully. 2nd option is find a low mileage second hand engine and change it.

I know this doesn't help you, but here in NZ most of the Freelanders for sale are KV6 and its a sorry tale. The most popular site, which lists probably 95% of all F1s for sale currently has 1 x 1.8 K and 2 x TD4 for sale. It also has 19 x KV6s for sale as follows (mileage in KMs):

2001 86K : "Overheating fixed"
2001 141K : Needs engine
2001 131K : OK
2001 79K : OK
2002 77K : OK
2002 142K : OK
2003 148K : OK
2003 119K : OK
2003 119K : Needs engine
2003 169K : OK
2003 155K : OK
2003 92K : "Overheating fixed"
2003 157K : Needs engine
2004 142K : Needs engine
2004 78K : OK
2004 130K : Needs engine
2005 117K : OK
2005 166K : Needs engine
2006 78K : OK

So of the 19 for sale, 6 are scrap and 2 have supposedly had overheating problems "fixed" - but I doubt it. Only 11 are sold without engine problems, and I wonder what proportion of those the sellers are just not saying about problems.

You can also see how low the mileage is on these cars - only 1 'good' and 1 'bad' car has done 100K miles. They die young. Pick a random selection of 2001 - 2006 cars and a lot more than 10% would have exceeded 100K miles.

I suggest you don't put to much cash into fixing it, if you can, great - but whether you can fix it or not - get shot of it!

Cars taken from http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Cat...Search_keypresses=0&sidebarSearch_suggested=0

It's not impossible to fix the KV6 GG. The main reason for the initial overheating is a leak at the thermostat O rings. So the same coolant level checks as the 1.8 are necessary. This way the early warning signs are noticed, so can addressed before damage is done. The KV6 has very thin head gaskets, so will not tolerate low coolant. If coolant levels are maintained, it's a very reliable engine. Complacency is what leads to its early demise.
However if it's not been boiled to death, then it can be repaired in much the same way as the 1.8

It's a lot scarier to look at than the 1.8 though... Lots of stuff to remove to get to the heads and lots of belts (though, as you have said before, they're not actually that bad).
They seem pretty scarce in the UK (fuel prices I expect) but when they are going it is

davidsmith1307 said:

It's a lot scarier to look at than the 1.8 though... Lots of stuff to remove to get to the heads and lots of belts (though, as you have said before, they're not actually that bad).
They seem pretty scarce in the UK (fuel prices I expect) but when they are going it is

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The front HG is easy to get at. The rear HG is a ballache to do with the engine in situ.
If I were to do V6 Freelander HG again, I'd swap out the engine for a good or rebuilt replacement. I'd also fit a new thermostat and timing belts at the same time.

Here in Canada the only Freelanders are V6. There is one diesel locally but he did the swap himself.
That's a big project when the parts supply is thousands of miles away. Our for sale ads read much the same as yours,
my favorite reading, " not running, engine issues, easy fix" Yeah right!

I just took a look at the local for sale ads. Here's one where he says both "Mechanic's Special" and "Like New" in the ad heading.
"Car is in excellent condition inside and out, but engine is broken.
I don't have a mechanic whom I can trust to fix this car for a responsible price. so I decided to sell it.
It's very sad to let it go,cause this car is excellent!
I will consider all reasonable prices !!!
And he wants $3000. for it! (It's been for sale at that price for months!)

The main things I looked for when I bought my Hippo was low mileage and recently changed belts. So far so good-fingers crossed!

Make sure you get used to checking the coolant every week. As soon as loss is spotted, you must investigate. The V6 won't tolerate low coolant or the head gaskets take a hammering. The gaskets are about 8mm wide around the fire rings. This makes them very fragile and easy to damage by mistake.
So keeping the cooling system sealed and in good health is the key to long life

@htr has fitted a level sensor to the coolant bottle in his K - I believe it throws an LED on the dash when levels go low.

That's not a bad idea at all. I had level alarms fitted to both of my MGFs and they saved me from disaster at least once

GrumpyGel said:

I know this doesn't help you, but here in NZ most of the Freelanders for sale are KV6 and its a sorry tale. The most popular site, which lists probably 95% of all F1s for sale currently has 1 x 1.8 K and 2 x TD4 for sale. It also has 19 x KV6s for sale as follows (mileage in KMs):

2001 86K : "Overheating fixed"
2001 141K : Needs engine
2001 131K : OK
2001 79K : OK
2002 77K : OK
2002 142K : OK
2003 148K : OK
2003 119K : OK
2003 119K : Needs engine
2003 169K : OK
2003 155K : OK
2003 92K : "Overheating fixed"
2003 157K : Needs engine
2004 142K : Needs engine
2004 78K : OK
2004 130K : Needs engine
2005 117K : OK
2005 166K : Needs engine
2006 78K : OK

So of the 19 for sale, 6 are scrap and 2 have supposedly had overheating problems "fixed" - but I doubt it. Only 11 are sold without engine problems, and I wonder what proportion of those the sellers are just not saying about problems.

You can also see how low the mileage is on these cars - only 1 'good' and 1 'bad' car has done 100K miles. They die young. Pick a random selection of 2001 - 2006 cars and a lot more than 10% would have exceeded 100K miles.

I suggest you don't put to much cash into fixing it, if you can, great - but whether you can fix it or not - get shot of it!

Cars taken from http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/CategoryAttributeSearchResults.aspx?sort_order=24_asc&search=1&cid=268&sidebar=1&5=&14=Land+Rover&15=Freelander&18=0,0&24=0,0&54=&searchRegion=100&sidebarSearch_keypresses=0&sidebarSearch_suggested=0

Click to expand...

Yes, got my eye on one or two of those for redecorating my 1.8, now that I have V6 HP.

GrumpyGel said:

@htr has fitted a level sensor to the coolant bottle in his K - I believe it throws an LED on the dash when levels go low.

Click to expand...

Got one in my MGF. It's easy to incorporate into the Freelander too as Hippo has demonstrated. It only needs to be a simple LED that lights up if the coolant drops below a set level. With some work, an LED could be fitted into the Ipack, near the temperature gauge.
I also thought that linking a level sensor into the engine CTS circuit, would throw the ECU into "safe" mode, again signalling the driver via the Ipack temperature gauge. This method wouldn't require any wiring to be fed into the cabin from the engine bay. It would consist of a simple link harness running between the CTS, the bottle sensor and the CTS harness plug.

I have the same over pressuring problem on my V6 and now the coolant loss is more and more (I had a thermostat go and I did not notice it and changed it fast enough)

There was a few reports on Rover 75 with the same KV6 engine that used Steel Seal and 1.8 user using wondarweld. al those products are based on sodium silicate without any additional particulates, unlike the infamous K-Seal. I know do the head gasket, but time is in short supply, so I might give this a try and report back.

Do the HGs properly and the engine will outlast the car