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dcribb

New Member
This is my first post on the forum, although I have been lurking for a while. Due to lack of mechanical nouse or Landy experience, I have so far not been able to help or contribute but would like to thank those who have.

I have a 2003 2.5 V6 Freelander with 62.000 miles on the clock. I bought it at 57.000 miles last spring and took it to Stratstone for a major service and to have the cambelt, pulleys and water pump changed in summer. I will spare you the full account of my experience with Stratstone, but most of you will have read similar stories elsewhere.

When we (finally) could pick up the car, there was an unexpected delay, as the mechanic working on the car was having a problem with bleeding the coolant properly. After we got the car back, we suffered from a severe loss of coolant (about 0.5 litres after a 60 miles drive). We took it back to Stratstone, who blamed a porous expansion bottle, which was replaced. That seemed indeed to fix the problem and we have driven the car without a problem since.

Last week we started noticing a funny sound from the engine. On closer inspection it turned out that we were very low on coolant (almost a litre to get it back to max in the bottle) and had virtually no oil in the engine. It took four litres of oil to get it back to normal fill level.

The car does not smoke or steam at any time but nor do we have puddles of liquid under the car after is has been parked, even for longer periods.
The car is due to be examined at a local garage on Saturday. Does anyone have any suggestions what we should look out for? Head Gasket would seem like a possible cause, but I am hoping for something easier...

Thank you.
 
I had the same issue with coolant. Turned out to be the small hose which runs under the big one running along by the top of the radiator.
After time they harden and eventually split. I think a replacement was about £8 from LR, so probably about 5p elsewhere.
 
Over what time did the water and oil disappear? (between weekly checks?) It's not uncommon to loose some coolant after the system has been refilled as it's almost impossible to get all the air out when the system is blead so the remaining air comes out in service. The oil should never go down to any great extent between changes. If you are loosing coolant into the oil? the the oil level would normaly rise not fall .
 
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Nodge68 said:
Over what time did the water and oil disappear? (between weekly checks?) It's not uncommon to loose some coolant after the system has been refilled as it's almost impossible to get all the air out when the system is blead so the remaining air comes out in service.
Click to expand...

I didn't do weekly checks, so I don't know when it started to drop. But we did do regular checks the first weeks after the repair and topped up as needed.

It is the 4 litres of oil that really worry me.
 
dcribb said:
I didn't do weekly checks, so I don't know when it started to drop. But we did do regular checks the first weeks after the repair and topped up as needed.

It is the 4 litres of oil that really worry me.
Click to expand...

Upto a litre per 1000 miles use on engines such as vw is acceptable, do we take it you drove it till it dropped without checking it!
 
As we don't know miles between checks the first thing is it could be a dodgy expansion tank cap or a minor leak.
As for the noise low on oil will have caused wear-how much is anyone's guess. If it isn't rattling like a bag of **** yet it will have shortened engine life.

Top the levels up and ask for a sniff test using exhaust gas anaylizer over open coolant header tank with engine running-if the hydrocarbons jump from under bonnet background= head gasket.

Do not bother with liquid head gasket indicator tests as they are ****
 
The rover kv6 petrol engine as used in the v6 Freelander won't use anywhere near 1L in 1000 miles if the engine is running as normal.
 
Hi,
I was loosing coolant to, and it turned out to be the heater radiator or matrix as LR call it. Living where I do I do not need a heater so I bypassed it. I bought a new matrix out of the UK and it cost around $420 delivered to OZ.
 
The last oil and coolant check were about 1.000 miles ago, so don't get on my case too badly folks.

My other cars (1972 Merc and 2002 Saab) are virtually maintenance free between annual services, so weekly checks of fluids are not part of my habit, nor had I planned on making them a habit.
 
dcribb said:
The last oil and coolant check were about 1.000 miles ago, so don't get on my case too badly folks.

My other cars (1972 Merc and 2002 Saab) are virtually maintenance free between annual services, so weekly checks of fluids are not part of my habit, nor had I planned on making them a habit.
Click to expand...

If the engine is'nt leaking oil and is'nt smoking then one explanation to the low oil level is that not enough was put in in the first place? Did you put it in yourself? The KV6 is'nt known as an oil burner unless a 20w50 is used which they don't like. I've run lots of KV6 powered cars on the road and track with various issues cropping up but excessive oil consumption is'nt one of them. As for weekly checks? The K series in general can suffer water loss due to failed O rings or gaskets and water pumps which in them selves are of no real importants but if the water level drops to much the system is easily airlocked and a failed HG in often the result!! Loosing just 1 Litre of water is enough to be terminal!!
 
Nodge68 said:
If the engine is'nt leaking oil and is'nt smoking then one explanation to the low oil level is that not enough was put in in the first place? Did you put it in yourself? The KV6 is'nt known as an oil burner unless a 20w50 is used which they don't like. I've run lots of KV6 powered cars on the road and track with various issues cropping up but excessive oil consumption is'nt one of them. As for weekly checks? The K series in general can suffer water loss due to failed O rings or gaskets and water pumps which in them selves are of no real importants but if the water level drops to much the system is easily airlocked and a failed HG in often the result!! Loosing just 1 Litre of water is enough to be terminal!!
Click to expand...

My KV6 lost significantly more than that when a hose cracked!
Since then it's been running hot and misfiring - I'm not sure yet which is causing which (coil pack and lead on order) but it does seem to be eating a rocker cover gasket every few months (the misfire causes a hotspot which cooks the gasket making it leak oil, fouling the plug and misfiring even more!)
 
I'd stop driving mine if it was doing this too. It'll only get worse and the repair bill will increase or you'll scrap it when it's feked.
 
Right, Here is the update. Garage couldn't find a leak in coolant system, assumed there may have been an airlock after expansion tank had been replaced. I don't think so, but can't prove otherwise.

They found a small oil leak I already knew about, but nothing that would account for the 4 litres of oil.

Sniff test was done, cap of expansion tank off, hand cupped over it and sensor held under cupped hand. Result: 11 parts of hydrocarbon per million.

I feel a bit stumped. Will watch levels and see what happens, unless anyone has a better suggestion.
 
Is the floor wet under the heater matrix? That could be why the coolant dropped but don't account for oil loss. At least it would rule it out as an option.
 
dcribb said:
Right, Here is the update. Garage couldn't find a leak in coolant system, assumed there may have been an airlock after expansion tank had been replaced. I don't think so, but can't prove otherwise.

They found a small oil leak I already knew about, but nothing that would account for the 4 litres of oil.

Sniff test was done, cap of expansion tank off, hand cupped over it and sensor held under cupped hand. Result: 11 parts of hydrocarbon per million.

I feel a bit stumped. Will watch levels and see what happens, unless anyone has a better suggestion.
Click to expand...

11 ppm on the HC sniff test sounds like a slight HG fault to me. My own V6 has only 22 ppm at the tail pipe!! The KV6 doesn't like low water levels at all. Even loosing 1 litre is enough to cause HG issues.
Where is the oil leak? The KV6 is'nt normaly a leaky engine. They can creep oil from the cam covers but this is normaly a stain of oil. The dipstick to sump joint can creep a bit to. Otherwise it's crank and cam oil seals but they are rare tbh.
 
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