The loss of water, or possible pressurisation of the coolant system could be symptoms of head gasket failure, possibly.

Not what you want to hear I'm sure but....

meanca said:

I'm keeping my fingers crossed too. I don't have any other symptoms of a head problem, but I guess that means nothing. I'll replace the breather and see how that helps. It's only £9 +VAT at a local motorfactors.

Fingers crossed.....

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The more times it gets hot the higher th likelyhood of the HG failing.

Has the vehicle been modded for offroad or does it show signs of being offroaded?

Hi. It's not been off roaded or modified. It's had the same 2 owners since new, and been used on 2 farms. It's never quite over heated as I've not allowed it to. The temp guage approached the top 3/4 of the scale before I pulled over and checked out what was going on.

This happened after having it for 2 weeks, and driving it for about 500 miles. There was no smoke/steam, no hot smell, nothing. Just a rising temperature guage, so I think I caught it before it had a chance to get too hot and cause damage.

meanca said:

Hi. It's not been off roaded or modified. It's had the same 2 owners since new, and been used on 2 farms. It's never quite over heated as I've not allowed it to. The temp guage approached the top 3/4 of the scale before I pulled over and checked out what was going on.

This happened after having it for 2 weeks, and driving it for about 500 miles. There was no smoke/steam, no hot smell, nothing. Just a rising temperature guage, so I think I caught it before it had a chance to get too hot and cause damage.

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Do the coolant pipes feel too hot? is the coolant system pressurising?

First off I'd flush out the cooling system with a hosepipe for 10-15 mins in BOTH directions. I tend to break things down into individual components when I do it (rad, engine, matrix etc). I'd also inspect the radiator fins for damage or being blocked by mud, grass, crap etc. Once the system has been flushed, re-fill it using cheap anti-freeze to start with. It's easier to see and smell a leak when it has anti-freeze in it. You don't want to **** expensive coolant out though.