Hissing from coolant reservoir

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darange

New Member
Posts
39
Location
Bahrain, now Sussex
Any ideas on this one:

Hubby took my 04 V6 Freelie out last night and having parked up suddenly smelt and acrid smell coming from engine. Popped the bonnet and heard a hissing noise from the coolant bottle, the coolant was also way about the max fill line.

Anyway, brought her home, let her cool down. Coolant fell back to min line and we checked the colour and its clear of any oil, pure orange colour. However, did notice some fine cracks coming from the neck of the bottle down.

Ran the engine again, fan cutting in and out, engine sweet. Hubby said that the temp gauge had stayed a little below the middle for the whole time he was out, I've never seen it stray dead in the middle or over for the whole time I've had her. She has 47,000 km on her now, low for a 04 as she'd been sitting unused for a year before I got her.

We live in Bahrain and cooling systems come under a lot of strain in the heat over the summer. It's not usual to see them all lined up along the highway, bonnets open, steam coming out. You need to keep your cooling system A1 out here!
 
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:eek: I know about the gasket problem before I bought her as my hubby knows his Landies and I am fond of Freelanders so he said if I have to get one, get a V6 and as late a model as we can afford for that very reason. She's low mileage and 'last of the breed', surely I've avoided the curse!! I thought I'd be OK. I will take her in for a pressure test ASAP and in the mean while she sits in our garage.

Could it possibly be anything else? The temp gauge was fine, the coolant clear, the oil was checked for contamination and even compared with the same oil from another of our Landies which used blue coolant. Please fill me with some optimism. It won't be a 2000 bill here in Bahrain as labour is much cheaper but I still don't want a gasket prob!
 
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That is what I, mistakenly, thought. The only way to reduce the chance of HGF on a Hippoo, too a normal mtbf is to buy a doozil.
 
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Because landrover, in their wisdom, decided to measure the coolant temperature in the return from the radiator, rather than the exit from the engine, thereby measuring the cooling efficiency if the radiator, rather than the immediateness of imminent engine overheating and failure. Another example of freelander design by an apprentice on Monday morning whilst suffering from a hangover!
 
that's clever of 'em- design a car that runs on the hot side of things and then make sure that there's no way of judging an overheating engine til the whole thing explodes..:confused:
 
Feeling cautiously optimistic, I've just had her idling, checked exhaust for coolant leak,there was none. Felt inlet and outlet hoses and they both felt soft and squishy unlike our Discovery's hoses during a pressure test when that had gasket problems, they were rock hard. Coolant still clean.

However, coolant reservoir is cracked, a big long hairline crack is running from the neck to the max line. There are some more smaller cracks too, they're like spidery cracks from plastic degradation not a sudden split due to pressure. When I turned off the ignition I could hear that hissing again, it stopped when I pressed down on the cap. Yes, the cap was tightened to clicking before you ask!

Remember that our Landies have to run at a much higher ambient temperature out here in Bahrain so that certainly impacts all cooling systems. I can't believe that its HGF, not a model year 05 built in 04 facelift (hubby corrected me on this) with only 47,000 Km on the clock.:lalala:
 
darange said:
However, coolant reservoir is cracked, a big long hairline crack is running from the neck to the max line. There are some more smaller cracks too, they're like spidery cracks from plastic degradation not a sudden split due to pressure. When I turned off the ignition I could hear that hissing again, it stopped when I pressed down on the cap. Yes, the cap was tightened to clicking before you ask!
Our V6 had the coolant reservoir changed under warranty as a safety measure, clearly a known weakness. Hopefully this may be the cause of the hissing sound. Good luck.
Click to expand...
 
ianda12 said:
Change the coolant reservoir and cap, they redesigned it because they cracked around the neck, although it should leak all the time it is hot.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I'll get them to do that. I'll also get them to do a pressure test just to be safe or will they do that anyway?
It's reassuring to hear about the bottle problems, it doesn't leak coolant but looses a little air through the neck which stops when I push down on the lid.

I will let you know what the final result its, fingers crossed my beloved hippo hasn't become another HGF statistic *prays*
 
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darange said:
Any ideas on this one:

Hubby took my 04 V6 Freelie out last night and having parked up suddenly smelt and acrid smell coming from engine. Popped the bonnet and heard a hissing noise from the coolant bottle, the coolant was also way about the max fill line.

Anyway, brought her home, let her cool down. Coolant fell back to min line and we checked the colour and its clear of any oil, pure orange colour. However, did notice some fine cracks coming from the neck of the bottle down.

Ran the engine again, fan cutting in and out, engine sweet. Hubby said that the temp gauge had stayed a little below the middle for the whole time he was out, I've never seen it stray dead in the middle or over for the whole time I've had her. She has 47,000 km on her now, low for a 04 as she'd been sitting unused for a year before I got her.

We live in Bahrain and cooling systems come under a lot of strain in the heat over the summer. It's not usual to see them all lined up along the highway, bonnets open, steam coming out. You need to keep your cooling system A1 out here!
Click to expand...

It is normal for the coolant level to be above the maximum when the system is hot and the cap on the expansion tank is removed. In your case the leak in the expansion tank/cap would have caused this. If you have hgf then there will be white gunk on the underside of the oil filler cap.
 
Sounds like a poor seal between the cap and the tank. If they are pressure testing, get them to tee into the bleed hose to the tank so that you can pressure test with the cap on and thus see if it leaks. Don't go above the pressure rating of the cap though or it will do it's job and vent the pressure (not a leak).

If they just pressure test at the cap joint itself then a bad seal between cap and tank, or a dodgy cap won't show up.

Good luck !
 
Finally dropped my Hippo at the garage, to be honest with you I haven't had the cash until now so she's been immobile until today. Man at the garage said that even though I had clean coolant, clean oil, clean exhaust and there were cracks in my coolant bottle there was still a possibility of HGF as the crack in the bottle has been releasing pressure that otherwise would be there. Now, this particular guy is notorious for spinning a yarn to customers, especially women.

Anyway, they're going to replace the bottle and do a pressure test. Is there any chance that his guy is telling the truth, that the coolant can be clean, the oil can be clean, the exhaust also clean and still there's a chance of HGF?
 
Head gasket failure between the water jacket and a cylinder could cause these symptoms as the cylinder pressure would over pressurise the coolant system.
 
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