Bantam1

Well-Known Member

• Jan 6, 2018

• #1

Just thought I'd share a small triumph today.
I've had a coolant leak since getting the Disco td5 but today decided to look for it and found it. The little 3 inch long link pipe from the oil cooler just below the rear of the turbo. A tiny little split in it.
Having read through several threads here there seemed to be a HG theme appearing but thankfully not.
Anyway, inspired by the find I have drained the complete system, washed all the rusty crud out of block, heat exchanger and all importantly the radiator. The radiator took an age to clean out but all now seems good (if only people flushed the systems properly every time they changed coolant - this Disco must have never had the rad cleaned out before).
Along the way I have also found the heater inlet hose to look a little worn so have ordered one of those too.
I also fixed the bracket holding the heat shield to the turbo, it had broken and needed welding.
All in all I've had a good day but hell that engine bay is congested compared to my defender 200tdi.

 

neilly

Well-Known Member

• Jan 6, 2018

• #2

Is a classic place for a leak, has been discussed a few times on here.

Cheers

 

Bantam1

Well-Known Member

• Jan 6, 2018

• #3

Didn't catch any threads leading me that direction I must say.
It's horrible to get at though.
I think I'll have a look on e-bay for the tool to get those damn pipe clips off and on too.

 

neilly

Well-Known Member

• Jan 6, 2018

• #4

YeH the right tool costs a tenner but saves the pain, my turbo HS now is a 2 minute job as I replaced the rivets with small bolts.

Cheers

 

Bantam1

Well-Known Member

• Jan 14, 2018

• #5

All previous work done and good but top hose bleed point thingy went last night.
I may have lent on it to cause it to fail but when I pulled the hose off I found the small thread block had come out of the hose and was just about to disappear down the cooling passages of the engine. Carefully recovered it and have ordered a better version of the top hose.
What a crappy design those hoses are.
Lined with a rusty hard residue too.
Oh well another flushing at least.

 

Joemac434

Well-Known Member

• Jan 14, 2018

• #6

At least you caught it before it caused a big problem! Think you were right in the first place that she's never had a flush or some twit has used cheapie antifreeze without inhibitors and let the crud build up.

 

Bantam1

Well-Known Member

• Jan 23, 2018

• #7

All good now but as there have been a few threads about cold heaters and I can confirm that for me that I experienced the following:-
I put all together as above with a new top hose as well. I bled the system, elevating the expansion bottle as you should and all was well.
I ran it up to temp and heater worked great and temp gauge too.
Later in day my son asked me to run him into town (down bypass for 6 miles and town for another 6 or so, plus return trip).
On the way the heater was working great but on the way back it went cold and came back when I was waiting at lights.
The next morning I opened the expansion bottle cap noticing the level was higher in it than when I bled it and as I did so it spurted out some water/antifreeze.
I bled again (loads of air) and have been running it to work over the past few days. The heater is working great all the time and the temp and water levels are stable.
My guess is the initial warm up didn't release the thermostat and circulate the radiator flow. Once it had and I re-bled and all is OK.

 

GrumpyRuralBoy

Member

• Jan 23, 2018

• #8

I've heard people using dishwasher tablets to clean out radiator cores. Wished I had known that a year ago when I missed that as an issue on mine and ended up having to replace the head gasket.

 

Jamiegreen

Well-Known Member

• Jan 24, 2018

• #9

Bantam1 said:

Didn't catch any threads leading me that direction I must say.
It's horrible to get at though.
I think I'll have a look on e-bay for the tool to get those damn pipe clips off and on too.

Click to expand...

Would it be something like this your thinking of?
Going to do my next disco with silicone coolant/boost pipes and those factory spring clamps are a b*tch to get off, tool looks sh*t quality but might last long enough to get them all off

 

Bantam1

Well-Known Member

• Jan 24, 2018

• #10

Jamiegreen said:

Would it be something like this your thinking of?
Going to do my next disco with silicone coolant/boost pipes and those factory spring clamps are a b*tch to get off, tool looks sh*t quality but might last long enough to get them all off

Click to expand...

The tool has actually been great and easy to use and reuse.
I like the idea of these clamps over the usual jubilee because they can expand with heat and pressure and I imagine are less stressful on the hose as a result.