An interesting observation (to me anyway)

[PeterJ]

So, traveling home today towing the van into Adelaide via the South Eastern Freeway (Adelaide Hills). Noticed the coolant temp go high, very quickly [bigsad] but not into the thick black bar at the top of the gauge, just to the bottom of it. Very strange I thought, had not seen this before, anyway then it started to drop again, also quite quickly. A quick pull over and look for leaks or anything strange, but all OK. So, plug in the GAP tool, bring up some live values and did a bit of recording. The needle on the gauge is in the center of the display at around 110 deg C, and goes up to the bottom of the thick vertical bar at 116 deg C when pulling up a hill, I also noticed the A/C had cut out, so the engine management system was shedding heat load for the engine cooling. As I said, I have not noticed this before and have done a lot of towing and on hotter days (today only 36 or so) but tomorrow I will start to have a more serious look at this. No warnings thrown up on the instrument cluster, I will check for codes tomorrow with GAP
Out of interest I called up the EGT for bank 1 and 2, up the same hill that saw the coolant temp increase to 116 deg, Bank 1 went to 600 and Bank 2 635 C.

Anyone noticed anything similar.

Peter

[Chops]

That is kinda interesting Peter.
I guess this is part of the reason we pay substantially for our cars, The tech involved is pretty incredible when you think about it.
I've done a fair bit of towing with our car, and in some very hot weather too, and I can't say I've seen anything like that come up at all.
Looking at things like slowing down engine capacity etc when running low on fuel, and shutting off the air-con to alleviate heat buildup etc,, pretty cool ways to help protect our investments.

And I must get my Gap Tool and practice working with it [bigwhistle]

[DiscoJeffster]

PeterJ. Have you checked for coolant leaks? Is the bottle level correct still? The temp gauge moving is an indication of a problem in my opinion. I would be checking for the underlying root cause.
Top radiator hose cut by the engine cover?
Top plastic water fitting the connects to the top hose (known as the thermostat housing even though there’s no thermostat in it)?

[Eric SDV6SE]

Like DJ said, also how old is the coolant? I believe your D4 is a MY13, so coolant would be about 6 -7 years old in the vehicle. Maybe time for a flush and /or concentration correction? Especially if towing frequently in hot conditions, your coolant has done a lot of hard work.

[PeterJ]

Yeah, thanks all for the input, I have checked and no fault codes, coolant level is exactly where it was when I did the service 2 weeks ago, exactly mid-range on the side of the bottle when cold, so no leaks. I take your point about the age of the coolant but it should still be OK. I have already changed the troublesome plastic housing so no worries there and checked the top hose when I first read that thread, great thing this forum! I did notice a bit of a collection of bugs and grass in the collection of heat exchangers there at the front, so I am going to pull the grill and have a bit of a clean out, but it's not much. While I would expect to loose coolant if the system was not holding pressure I think I will have a look at that as well, stranger things have happened.

Has any one with a diagnostic tool looked at EGT, I would be interested to know expected range and limits. Next time out with the van I think I will set up a more comprehensive data logging exercise.......just for the fun of it.

Peter

[Redback]

Coolant should be change every 12mths or so.

A question, did the car loose power when all this happened??

[rick130]

Coolant should be change every 12mths or so.

A question, did the car loose power when all this happened??Umm, not any OAT or HOAT, that's the point of them, they can go 4/5/6 or more years.
As well as not having silicate dropout and better heat transfer.

[DiscoJeffster]

Coolant should be change every 12mths or so.

A question, did the car loose power when all this happened??

What on earth? Red coolant is around 8-10 years. Land Rover spec it changed every 10. Even if you halve that, it’s not 12 months. Do specific gravity testing of it to actually check whether it’s still functional.

[Redback]

Dunno how that happened, should be 10yrs or so, I was responding to the 6 or 7yrs old assuming he suggested it be changed.

[PeterJ]

Coolant should be change every 12mths or so.

A question, did the car loose power when all this happened??No, no loss of power and everything else was normal, and as I have mentioned above no warning lights or fault codes when I scanned it the next morning.

[josh.huber]

Likely culprits for this is usually air flow over the radiator, coolant flow through the radiator, if it has never had a change or mix of coolant, should be ok. Clean externally first then retest, I generally clean them with a coil cleaner from air conditioners, it's a high foam designed to push the crap out,

[josh.huber]

Apart from that, slipping trans on the hill, but most likely air flow, if there dirty enough you would get a bit more heat in the egt. The problem with knowing how hot is too hot with them is not knowing the location. I'm pretty sure if they are fitted the car will go limp if they are exceeded. But that's just my guess

[Eric SDV6SE]

Dunno how that happened, should be 10yrs or so, I was responding to the 6 or 7yrs old assuming he suggested it be changed.

All I was suggesting that in case of coolant leaks, lots of towing and the potential that those conditions may have caused abnormal coolant concentration or levels, that at least it be checked, and if required, changed as a preventative measure. Coolant is usually 8 year 500,000 km life for these cars.

[PeterJ]

, I generally clean them with a coil cleaner from air conditioners, it's a high foam designed to push the crap out,

Excellent, thanks. Not aware of this product I will search around.

[josh.huber]

Excellent, thanks. Not aware of this product I will search around.

I would use a high alkali compound, they clean the actual fins aswell, I used to get a can from Ashdown Ingram with a snake on it, can't find it online, but Bunnings will have something, a cheap throw away garden sprayer is a good option, if you have mixed coolant at some stage, I would flush the coolant system with cummins restore "plus".