Thread: Problems with my TD5 II Disco

As said in my intro - I bought my Disco primarily for towing my 3 horse float - when fully laden it weighs about 3t. I've had the car for I think 2.5yrs, could be 3.5yrs not sure (I am female and a horse rider to boot ) Anyway around about Nov 09 I started having problems. It has always had a problem with water - it would about 2 weeks with not showing any symptons, then I'd get home and the Thermostat would be on, so I knew I had to fill it up with water, would only take about 1 litre - so never thought it a great problem. But in November, it started missing - intermittently. Took it to the mechanic and he could never get it to miss (thats how intermittently it was). Orginally he thought it was the throttle and he would clean it. It would be a good car for a couple weeks or a month and then it would start again. Repeat performance - clean the throttle and again a couple of weeks would pass etc, etc. During Feb, he discovered a small hole in the radiator, which we fixed and replaced the injector wiring loom. Again it was a good little car for about 6 weeks - but then things have just gone downhill from there. It started missing intermittently again and even stalled a couple of times (auto) (actually I was happy it stalled, 'cos then I wasn't just a whinging woman ) However the car could have been nicer and not said the error was "driver error" - hehehehe. The mechanic got in contact with someone on the mainland who suggested that he totally reset the computer - which he did and again it was a good car for about 2 weeks. However then things went from bad to worse.

I went to pic up a float load of hay one day - the place I was picking it up from is about 17klm's from my place. It took me 1hr to drive to the hay and load up the trailer - it took me 1 1/2hrs to get home, with 3 stops on the way home from overheating. (I'm pretty vigiliant in watching my taco, so noticed the temp going up prior to it being serious). Each time I stopped, I would let the motor cool right down before topping it up and it took all up (over the 3 stops) around 6 litres of water. The last stop was about 5klms from home and I honestly thought I'd have to stop at the bottom of our driveway, as we have a rather step driveway and I thought the temp would be increasing by then, but it was fine and it got us home. Checked the water and the level was fine (go figure). Rang the mechanic first thing Monday morn, couldn't get it to him until Thursday, drove 104klms per day, without using a drop of water and no over heating. so D-Day (Thursday) comes and the mechanic looks in the water and it is full of oil - my heart absolutely dropped - it was a mess. Turned out it was the Oil Cooler - it was totally pitted. A new Oil Cooler from UK and I get it back last Friday. It was driving perfect - best it has been for a long time - no miss (but I wasn't getting excited about that one, was gonna wait till Christmas to make sure the miss had gone) and power - I'd forgotten how much power it had. It was short lived however - it over heated after having done about 80klm's. So took it to a local mechanic who said there was probably an air block and he bleed it for me. The normal mechanic had to put degresser in the cooling system, as they just couldn't flush the oil out - it was booked in for early this week. So Tuesday it goes back - gets flushed and then on Wednesday it over heats again. By this time my patience is starting to wear thin - this car is driving me insane. So its now back at the mechanic's - however we did notice that it had a constant drip coming from the centre of the motor to the front.

So my questions:
Would an oil cooler cause the car to miss intermittently??
Where is the oil cooler located?? Prior to the oil cooler being replaced, I could hear water sloshing around under the consol - was told it was probably coming from the heater - now I can't hear it.
If it was a blown head - then surely wouldn't there be water in the oil??

I've spent a small fortune on this car to date - all I want is it fixed. My horses are driving me crazy as they are currently paddock bound :-) Actually thats a bit of a lie - but it sounded good.

Oh - and at the same time as all this is happening, we had catastrophic problems with our BMW - any beamer experts out there.

Thanks for listening and for any advice.

Cheers
Robyn

Originally Posted by Redback

I'm assuming your in Tassie, if you are, contact Justin Cooper, he is a Land Rover specialist and will look after you very well, he is also a member here, he comes very highly recommended.

Stop messing around with your normal mechanic.

As already mentioned, there is only one thing to do to get this diagnosed and sorted properly; contact Justin Cooper (justinc on here).

He is in the southern suburbs of Hobart and one of Australias top LR gurus.

He even helped me with history on a car I bought over here in WA.

A top bloke and will definitley see you right!