Thread: Magical Mechanical Moments with Mick & The Mack Truck

Well Mick,

I'm glad to hear that you 'appear' to have had some success, and I really hope that everything turns out A.O.K.

At least you low coolant alarm appears to have a CAUSE for actuating.

Mine has a 'gremlin' and I kid you not.

Ever since Rick fixed my Maxi-Drive actuator light, the low coolant alarm has played all sorts of games. During this whole saga the coolant levels have been fine, no leaks no lossess.

Firstly , Rick thought that the coolant concentration might not be high enough. So, out with the old , in with the new at a much higher concentration. Good for two days only.

Then, Rick thought that an additional earth wire from the raditaor (which is a brass one-I ditched the aluminium jobbie) may fix the problem. Good for two days only.

Back to Ricks, who replaced the power source to the low coolant alarm. Good for two days only.

So, it's now booked back into Ricks to try goodness what else and he's tearing his hair out.

Me, well I've disconnected the whole bl**dy thing and that been good for three days so far.

So much for the new style low coolant alarm. The old one which was replaced by Rick because the manufacturer said so, never caused me an ounce of strife.

Cheers

Disco2

Originally Posted by MickG

Well folks, as some of you may know, my low coolant alarm has been squealing at me (and Stevo) for a few weeks now on and off and has proved fairly hard to determine why even when each time the system has been topped up. It would appear that it has been leaking from the over flow pipe on the expansion tank.....why, I have no idea. Now it is well documented, that I know next to nothing about how the whole system works, or indeed any part of the TD5, but figured it could have been an air lock in the system - any comments/ideas welcome So today (for the 2nd time in my relationship with the Mack Truck) I drained the coolant, flushed the system and topped her back up with fresh OAT coolant So far so good and will keep you posted as I go.

Stay tuned for another exciting installment of Magical Mechanical Moments with Mick & The Mack Truck

Aye, Mick

Well done for having a go Mick, would be like me doing finance

But seriously did you bleed the system properly????. If not you can pop a head gasket etc. Drive it round the block and then park it nose up in your driveway. With the engine running, gently crack the bleeder nipple located on the top radiator hose and see if you get bubbles of air coming out with fluid. If you do bleed it until fluid alone comes out. Nip it up and drive around the block again. Come back and repeat the proceedure. Do this for a couple of days and then check it once a week until no air bubbles are present. TD5,s can trap air in the back of the motor hence pointing it up hill when doing it. this encourages the air to come out.

There nice and easy for you.

Justin

Oiiii, you were meant to let me know when you were going under the bonnet again, so that I could come over with a 6 pack and watch . Oh and its okay folks, dont be expecting to see a Magical Mechanical Moments with Stevo and Smoky the one day to be deadlier than Micks D2 anytime soon ,

Regards

Stevo

Originally Posted by DRanged

Well done for having a go Mick, would be like me doing finance

But seriously did you bleed the system properly????. If not you can pop a head gasket etc. Drive it round the block and then park it nose up in your driveway. With the engine running, gently crack the bleeder nipple located on the top radiator hose and see if you get bubbles of air coming out with fluid. If you do bleed it until fluid alone comes out. Nip it up and drive around the block again. Come back and repeat the proceedure. Do this for a couple of days and then check it once a week until no air bubbles are present. TD5,s can trap air in the back of the motor hence pointing it up hill when doing it. this encourages the air to come out.

There nice and easy for you.

Justin

I should have known it would not be as simple as I thought.......general rule from now on, is that if I think I have completed a job successfully on the Mack Truck, fairly good odds I have either stuffed something up, or things are about to go bad

Have driven it to work today with no alarm but will check the bleeder nipple when I get home tonight (the small black valve about the size of a 5 cent piece that I would turn with a flat head yeah)

Appreciate the help Justin and Stevo, sorry mate, but wouldn't mind getting a couple of successful forays under the bonnet out the way first before beer and mates are involved..........I'm sure you can understand why

Stay tuned, will report back this evening........unless of course she blows up before then

P.S. I know i'm bad, but I would pay lots of money to see Magical Mechanical Moments with Stevo & Smokey.........there's got to be a Discovery Channel show in there somewhere

i'd be right beside you mate, with camera in hand for sure...

Channel 9 are always looking for a good feel news item or should that be the comady channel on fox t.v with Stevo doing any mechanical work,

For those following my magical moments...I have a quick update for you. After some more advice from Rick, I changing the pressure release cap on the coolant expansion tank as it was thought this could be leaking....which would explain all the red patches around this area. Anyway, once changed the alarm still seemed to come on, so we assumed there was still a problem somewhere. However, whilst Stevo had the mack truck, he filled her to the top with the remaining coolant I had in the back once the alarm sounded again and this it would appear may have fixed the problem.
Time will tell, however I think that when I flushed and changed the coolant over and ran with the old pressure release cap, the coolant was still coming out. With the new cap fitted and a quick top up, I think it just needed a bit more once the engine was running. I have run her a round the block a few times and had her well up to temperature and she is still holding full so fingers crossed, problem solved. The tank is pretty full now though, but would assume this is no big deal........right?

Stay tuned for more

Not so Magical Mechanical Moments with Mick & The Mack Truck

Coolant issues would indeed appear to be the dreaded head gasket. Booked in for the job 14th July so no trips for me in the mean time. Why oh why is owning a land rover so bitter sweet