Thread: Coolant Leak

Did you change coolant at the same time? A common thread here seems to be that the red OAT coolant dissolves deposits that used to seal up tiny gaps. Fresh coolant: hey presto, a leak. It is after all a spot where RR V8's have been leaking since they were invented.

Hello wesbt,

Try using one of those mirrors on the end of an aerial to see where the leak is coming from. Failing that, try a blast of talcom powder(messy but highly accurate).
If and when you do find the leak which is hopefully at a join somewhere, try Loctite No3 Aviation gasket Cement(leak sealing heaven).
I put a TD5 sump gasket on my Disco with this stuff and not a leak anywhere. It works on both oil based and water based systems.
I don't have the answer to your leak, but I hope this helps with the repair.

Cheers,

Jason

Thanks for the reply. Yes I did renew the OAT coolant, and had read about the leaking issues, but as mine hadnt lost a drop in 2 years figured a change would be fine, any leak that did occur would be a slow seep rather than the dripping leak I've got.

Thanks Jason for the tip on the loctite, not looking forward to ripping a head off just at the moment!

The thing is, if people didn't react to bad and misleading advice about OAT in the first place and change to normal coolant, you wouldnt get leaks in the first place. The light corrosion that WILL happen thru electrolysis with normal glycol is the first thing OAT will attack when pit back in.
It gets a little tiresome listening to everyone bitch & moan at the first sign of a problem they themselves created and feeding the negative monster with more bad experiences to be dished out to the now bewildered masses. And it's not just OAT, it's all matter of problems that are caused through bad judgement here.
It may be a forum but stop and think how many may pickup on the information you may think you are right about and end up in the proverbial **** because of it.

Rant over

Andrew


Sent from my mobile tellingbone using rock carvings.

Hi Andrew;

My Disco's had OAT coolant in since I've owned it 50,000kms, and being that books show only serviced by LR dealers prior to that would guess has only ever had OAT in it. This was the first time I've done a coolant change and replaced with same. Reading through the forum about how the two types don't agree with each other and how important flushing was between a change I decided to stick with the OAT - as prior to this moment had not had a hint of a leak anywhere - IE stick with what appears to be working.

Are you suggesting I should not have done this?

Thanks.

Wes

Originally Posted by wesbt

Hi Andrew;

My Disco's had OAT coolant in since I've owned it 50,000kms, and being that books show only serviced by LR dealers prior to that would guess has only ever had OAT in it. This was the first time I've done a coolant change and replaced with same. Reading through the forum about how the two types don't agree with each other and how important flushing was between a change I decided to stick with the OAT - as prior to this moment had not had a hint of a leak anywhere - IE stick with what appears to be working.

Are you suggesting I should not have done this?

Thanks.

Wes

Not at all, staying with what you have and it being what is spec'd from the factory is correct, however the debate on "not using OAT and how bad it is" is looming.
The leak you describe is a common problem and is not restricted to OAT spec'd vehicles and OAT being the cause of the leak is HIGHLY unlikely as a lot would have you believe.
As before, if any corrosion is evident, OAT will start to remove that corrosion and only "precipitates" for want of a better word, when corrosion is evident thru a chemical reaction with the corroded area. Normal green coolant works by having it's protection package already free in the coolant until it just exhausts itself and starts actually doing the one thing it's there to stop.

Coolant is basically an anti-corrosion and antifreeze chemical. It's basic premise is to stop corrosion etc.
When it's ability to protect is exhausted it will become acidic and start to cause issues however this is a maintenance issue not the fault of the coolant.
Some will tell you OAT is thinner than normal glycol and causes leaks... Bollocks..... If you have a leak, it's a failure of the sealing material be it paper, steel or whatever. A gasket failure or leak in a head gasket or water pump where it's not through bad manufacture is accompanied by corrosion marks at the point of the gasket failure. Corrosion is due to the coolant being too old and turning acidic ala a maintenance thing.
My favorite is the excuse that OAT is thinner so it's going to leak more..... WTF????? The seals failed mate. Biggest load of bollocks I have ever heard. Take off whatever is leaking and I can guarantee it's a corrosion issue causing the gasket to fail due to a high acidity in the cooling system.

In your case it is most likely due to the fact that even with an LR service and supposed book services, it hasn't been done or it's only been topped up and a fresh batch has started to attack a lack of maintenance.
It may also be that it's been under it's minimum mix rate.
Its not an uncommon thing to be charged for something that hasn't been done and unfortunately with LR it happens a little too often. It's not the fault of LR directly but the private business that has the license to operate under the LR banner and unfortunately reflects badly on the brand.
It all comes down to the process used at the service desk.
I work for Mercedes Benz, however we implemented a different format that removes the possibility of this happening. All technicians are aware of it and anyone caught short circuiting it is out the door on the spot including service advisors and management like myself.
But I digress..... All too often the blame is passed to the coolant in these situations. No one tells you it's been in the car for 3 years or topped up with either water or a different inferior brand etc etc.
I can count just as many if not more cases well before OAT was even around where an alloy head using Glycol had corrosion in cylinder head water galleries requiring huge amounts of welding to bring it back to size or tracking across the face from a faulty gasket purely just soaking up coolant and failing. Alot can be attributed to crap alloy also, just look at all the junk coming out of Korea and China, all scrap metal re smelted with absolutely no grading against it.

But as before, what really bugs me is those who feed bad information due to their own short sightedness and lack of knowledge find the first scapegoat.

My basic point is if you (collectively not you personally) really dont know much about what your doing, ask someone who actually does, don't make bold statements or promote here say where some poor bastard who knows even less is going to get stung from giving them bad info.

Cheers

Andrew



Sent from my mobile tellingbone using rock carvings.

Thanks for the reply Andrew and understand what you are saying.

Guess my underlying suspicion was that in some way while putting all back together I had somehow caused the coolant to become over pressurised, and due to this coolant went and found the weakest part to leak from. Was waiting for someone to tell me I had probably done "X" and this led to the leak.

Of note - didnt see any signs of corrosion anywhere on the timing case cover or water pump, and inspected this pretty close as had no intention of pulling it out for a second time. From previous experience on Holden alloy V8 timing cases have seen plenty of examples of cavitation from the water pump (and probably poor coolant) leading to accelerated corrosion in that area.

In a nutshell sounds like I'm going to have to pull the head and find out what the damage is.

Thanks for the advice all.

Wes