Freelander 1 Td4 Cooling fans

Matt_rayner8 · Mar 6, 2018

Hi everyone.
I have had the freelander over a year now. With your help I have flushed the cooling system and fitted a new thermostat into the hose at the top as the original thermostat is stuck open and the coolant had gone funny. It’s the colour it should be now.
I Also bypassed the egr.
Everything has been working ok the temp gauge gets to half way after a couple of miles and it doesn’t go any hotter. but recently I have noticed I have been loosing coolant. It was empty this morning but I haven’t checked it for a month or so.
There is a hissing noise coming from the expansion tank cap. Could this be the cause of loosing coolant?
I have never heard the cooling fans kick in EVER. Should I be worried about that?
Today I had a noise of air being sucked under load and found the inter cooler pipe was split. I had that replaced this evening. Could that of been anything to do with it or completely unrelated to losing coolant?

Nodge68 · Mar 6, 2018

A split boost pipe and coolant loss aren't connected.
Check the tank for cracks arount the filler neck, which is a common cause of coolant loss.
The fans don't come on very often, even in summer. Although they will kick on when the AC is on.

Matt_rayner8 · Mar 6, 2018

I will check the expansion tank tomorrow for cracks. The hissing sound or air/steam escaping shouldn’t be happening then?
if I turn the ac on the 2 big fans in behind the radiator should kick in immediately?

I will try the ac Tomorrow. I know I’ve tried the ac but it never got cold so just assumed that was out of gas or something and opened the window instead. But I don’t remember hearing the fans spin.

Devilish · Mar 6, 2018

It is not uncommon for the fault to be the expansion tank cap on the Rover 75, try a new cap, I have known several people replace theirs. Same engine, and Rover designed the Freelander.

Also, fan resistor, fan relay, and fan pcb faults are fairly common cooling fan failure causes.
Re gassing has about a 50%++ failure rate, especially a £30+ gas top up, which does diddly squat. Not long ago someone asked if they could compare mine (75) to theirs, mine was not that good, but I do not recall ever using the ATC, I open the windows. So I will not bother with it. Although in my case, my 75 being 14 years old, low mileage, sits in the garage from Nov till March, never turned on the ATC on low, it could well be gas, but why bother.

Matt_rayner8 · Mar 19, 2018

the expansion tank is cracked around the top.
Could this be the cause of losing coolant?. some days i drive for 20 minutes and check the water again and its fine and other days it will be empty even after a short journey.
On other occassions it will be fine when i get home and then left over night its empty in the morning.

GrumpyGel · Mar 19, 2018

Matt_rayner8 said:
the expansion tank is cracked around the top.
Could this be the cause of losing coolant?. some days i drive for 20 minutes and check the water again and its fine and other days it will be empty even after a short journey.
On other occassions it will be fine when i get home and then left over night its empty in the morning.

I have the same with my L Series diesel - when ever I check the coolant, almost always the bottle is empty. I last checked it about a month ago and have done a couple of 1,000 kms since - checked it at the weekend and it didn't need topping up. I can't work it out.

Matt_rayner8 · Mar 19, 2018

GrumpyGel said:
I have the same with my L Series diesel - when ever I check the coolant, almost always the bottle is empty. I last checked it about a month ago and have done a couple of 1,000 kms since - checked it at the weekend and it didn't need topping up. I can't work it out.

Very odd. Hopefully someone on here will be able to help.

Alibro · Mar 19, 2018

Check all the water pipes in turn, it sounds very like an issue I had which was just a dodgy pipe at a connection. I didn't see it for ages than finally it showed when I moved the pipes with the engine running.

Nodge68 · Mar 20, 2018

Matt_rayner8 said:
the expansion tank is cracked around the top.
Could this be the cause of losing coolant

It's going to be a contributing factor for coolant loss.

My own TD4 looses a 1/4 liter in 5K miles, but I've no idea where it goes. My coolant tank is 18 months old as is the cap. There's no leaks that I can see, but I still loose a bit off coolant.

Matt_rayner8 · Mar 29, 2018

Update:
The head gasket has gone!
Lost power the other day and temp went right up and the fans actually kicked in.
Got it home and had lost all water.
checked the oil and there is water in there!
It’s been taken To a mechanic now and I’ve got my fingers crossed that the head isn’t damaged other wise I’ve been quoted £1400 for a new head.
Plus £600 for the head gasket to be replaced.

Alibro · Mar 29, 2018

Bummer mate, sorry to hear that. You must have been very unlucky as it's the first time I heard of a TD4 blowing a HG.

Matt_rayner8 · Mar 29, 2018

Alibro said:
Bummer mate, sorry to hear that. You must have been very unlucky as it's the first time I heard of a TD4 blowing a HG.

Yeah I know. I hope it’s not the end for it. I actually really like the car and it’s fairly low mileage for the year. 95k ish.
And for that price range there is nothing that I like that will do the same job.
The mechanic said the same thing when I rang him, that he would be surprised if it is the head gasket as he has never seen one go before! But when he came and had a look he was pretty convinced it had.
Just my luck.

Nodge68 · Mar 30, 2018

I'd be looking into the cause of HG failure on a TD4 as they simply don't fail. The crankshaft is more likely to break than the HG go.

Why is the mechanic quoting for a replacement head? The head is very unlikely to need changing.

If it needs a head, it would be easier and cheaper to find another engine as generally they are very reliable.

Alibro · Mar 30, 2018

Nodge68 said:
I'd be looking into the cause of HG failure on a TD4 as they simply don't fail. The crankshaft is more likely to break than the HG go.

Why is the mechanic quoting for a replacement head? The head is very unlikely to need changing.

If it needs a head, it would be easier and cheaper to find another engine as generally they are very reliable.

I guess he's covering himself in case the head was cooked when the HG went.
I'd be concerned a hose failed causing the head engine to overheat and damage the HG.
Like Nodge says it would be good to know the cause to prevent it happening again.

Matt_rayner8 · Mar 30, 2018

Nodge68 said:
I'd be looking into the cause of HG failure on a TD4 as they simply don't fail. The crankshaft is more likely to break than the HG go.

Why is the mechanic quoting for a replacement head? The head is very unlikely to need changing.

If it needs a head, it would be easier and cheaper to find another engine as generally they are very reliable.

The mechanic has just said worst case would be the head being damaged.
He is going to take it off and send it away to be tested. I really hope it’s ok then it will be £600 to repair the head gasket.

Nodge68 · Mar 30, 2018

You need to identify exactly why the HG went, because they don't go very often. Like I said, crankshaft failure is more common than HG failure on the TD4, and that is rare.

Matt_rayner8 · Apr 3, 2018

So the mechanic took the head off today and said its not good news. he can see that its is fecked! i think he said he can see that its cracked.
Black gunky watery oil is everywhere even in the some hoses to the turbo. Water has got down to the sump and has been pushed around the engine.
I think he said water got in around piston number 2.
He found out that i was losing water from a hole in the radiator.
His advise is drop a new engine in.

Thoughts please.
Is it worth carrying on with it or do i scrap it?
Do i get it repaired and keep it?
Do i get it repaired and get rid of it?

The annoying thing is i just spent about £200 getting it through the MOT.
Its got 4 tyres that have only done about 2k and a brand new tyre on the spare.

teddywood1 · Apr 3, 2018

keep looking for a replacement engine look on ebay but make sure it is a good one

Nodge68 · Apr 3, 2018

Replace the engine and the radiator. I can't see why the head is damaged, unless the vehicle was driven with no coolant for a good distance.

Alibro · Apr 4, 2018

Hi Matt
In an earlier post you said you managed to get it home but didn't say how. Unfortunately if you drove it with no coolant then that is likely what wrecked the engine.

The original fault was probably just a dodgy hose or connection.
I guess a salient lesson for us all.

If your mechanic can give you a price for fitting an engine and you can get a price for a replacement engine then whether it is worth keeping becomes simple maths. As a fixer upper it's probably only worth a few hundred pounds.

Freelander 1 Td4 Cooling fans

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