Thread: When coolant goes bad....

what colour was the coolant?

and how much tap water?

If you need to add fluid to a D2 its trying to tell you something

If your waterpump inlet looks like that, you might want to strip off the oil cooler and have a look at the matrix. Because chances are it will look the same, and if it fails you will be stranded next to the road as the sump gets emptied into the cooling system in a matter of seconds...which results in a loss of oil pressure and you could do very expensive damage to your engine.
This happend to me and I was very fortunate to not have been driving the car on the road at the time.
How old are your coolant hoses, perhaps its time for a bit of a cooling system overhaul, new hoses, water pump and oil cooler inspection...seeing as the car is getting up there in the years.

The products of all that corrosion over 10 years are also now deposited in your radiator. Maybe time for a cooling system birthday.

Originally Posted by Hendrik

If your waterpump inlet looks like that, you might want to strip off the oil cooler and have a look at the matrix. Because chances are it will look the same, and if it fails you will be stranded next to the road as the sump gets emptied into the cooling system in a matter of seconds...which results in a loss of oil pressure and you could do very expensive damage to your engine.
This happend to me and I was very fortunate to not have been driving the car on the road at the time.
How old are your coolant hoses, perhaps its time for a bit of a cooling system overhaul, new hoses, water pump and oil cooler inspection...seeing as the car is getting up there in the years.

X2!!
and dont be surprised when the head gasket waves goodbye also. IMO its just a matter of "when" rather than "if".
All of your aluminium alloy components are suffering a similar fate in the darkness of your engine.

sorry

Originally Posted by Hastykiwi;1223480


This is supposed to be the result of 10 odd years of wear and tear, plus a reasonable amount of[B

tap water [/B]going thru the coolant system. Quite common in TD5's at some point. Presumably, the loss had been a dribble while the gundge had partially blocked it. When the temp went up , and the pressure increased in the system, particularly after I had refilled, it probably blew it open.

Tap water... ouch.. no wonder!

Distilled water only please! and dont forget the red OAT coolant... the amount of discos / deefers i see with the green stuff in.. and its not like i work on them daily!

I only use tap water for flushing... then fill with distilled.. its only about 12 bucks for 20l....

Thanks

Steve

Guys,

thanks for the added insight. Fortunately the radiator is only a year old, so corrosion there should not be an issue, however i take the point about the depositing of material, a will flush away tommorrow.

As for the oil cooler, I will investigate this at the same time.

the tap water comment, was something suggested to me as a common cause of this. I have not used tap water since owning it, but, I couldnt tell you what went thru it for the first seven years.

Thanks all though for taking the time to post...

always appreciated.

cheers
Nick

that is a real bugger Nick but I was recently warned to 'run don't walk' from any d2 with green coolant in it by a well respected Landy mech. Good you got it before it went completely pear shaped.

Using green coolant is not a problem if it is done correctly. If the system is flushed totally and a cleaner used it causes no problems, but if coolants are mixed there will be nothing but problems. they blow radiators, hoses, heater cores, coolers, ETC. Must be cleaned well before using green coolant.