Thread: Coolant has destroyed pipes

Indeed, the guys at MR said that on the new Puma they shouldn't be touched for ten years....

I have no idea id it has or hasn't been topped up or changed but there is no indication of it on my service records and the last guys have explained that they didn't.

At the end of the day I cannot prove that it hasn't been changed and that is their argument, which quite frankly sucks..

Err yep, replace the hoses but don't forget they need to flush the system too!!...............I think at that point the guy speaking to me knew his fight was lost when I burst into nervous hysterical laughter at his initial mention of $4500..........

Someone earlier in this thread mentioned $2k for a recent similar issue with a transit (same engine) so I was expecting the 'special dealership markup' to kick in...

To be honest I think I may well nurse the truck home, disconnect the coolant system completely for the 15 months I'm away, give it a clean out as best I can and try and replace the hoses on my return, at least then I'll have more time and can get the job done myself properly...

Originally Posted by stuartshaw

Err yep, replace the hoses but don't forget they need to flush the system too!!...............I think at that point the guy speaking to me knew his fight was lost when I burst into nervous hysterical laughter at his initial mention of $4500..........

Someone earlier in this thread mentioned $2k for a recent similar issue with a transit (same engine) so I was expecting the 'special dealership markup' to kick in...

To be honest I think I may well nurse the truck home, disconnect the coolant system completely for the 15 months I'm away, give it a clean out as best I can and try and replace the hoses on my return, at least then I'll have more time and can get the job done myself properly...

This is a very sad and interesting thread which I have not seen in a long time.
Land Rover are normally professional and understanding, and there is no way they would play games with this coolant issue.
As I see it you have cooked the motor after loosing the coolant. You have driven the vehicle for many Ks with the cap loose to get home after filling with water.

Ok, so we have an issue where a hose blew and no idea how hot the motor got. I bet you cooked it.
Filling it with water got you back home but I can see this truck was running in the red some of the way.
If I was a Land Rover dealer and heard your story I would be putting up flags left right and center.

Why would a hose blow? Well it could have been a head gasket failure. It could have been you are not telling us something where you mounted large spot lights in front of the radiator or some other twist to the story that caused the head gasket to fail.

Non of this makes sense to me, and there is no way in hell a late model or any model Land Rover blows a hose for no reason.
I believe you have much more to answer in this scenario Stu, and maybe come clean with the real story..

I know you may not have time for this,but i would have the vehicle on a tilt tray to MR so they can inspect it and give their opinion on what is wrong with it.

This and a few other stories lends weight to this:

Whilst a vehicle is under warranty, if you support the dealer (network) they are more likely to support you.

The additional cost can be easily recovered in situations such as the one above by a dealer stamped log book.

In your particular case - I wish you well.

Black stuff in the reservoir bottle is most likely from the motor being cooked ( head gasket or similar ) and not any problem with the coolant.
The whole story is not right.
$4500 dollars would most likely cover the cost of a dealer replacing a head gasket and getting the head checked out including hoses.

Humble motor mechanic

interesting assumption there Flipper but I'm afraid there is nothing more to the story - I'm not on here trying to gain sympathy just trying to see if anyone else has experienced the same and / or whether it's a common problem, hopefully someone else can learn from what's happened to me.

The engine started to not respond/accelerate, I immediately looked at the temp gauge and say it was up at about 75%, pulled over and kept it running, heater on etc and got out to inspect, lots of coolant coming out underneath and so stopped the engine.

Found the source of the leak which is some sort of end cap/pipe end on the passenger side that had perished, I waited till it cooled, gaffa taped it as best as possible to stop the leak and then after about 15 mins topped up with river water that we'd been boiling for drinking, it was pretty clean obviously.

I left the cap of the system as didn't feel keeping it pressurised was going to help, it was a cool morning approx. 8 degrees so wasn't too hot.

I nursed it home all day, checked every 30 mins, occasional top up but the engine temp stayed at mid level all the way home, there was no more coolant loss (It was good Gorilla gaffa tape )

I wish I knew more than that, I'm not an idiot so definitely didn't want to cook the engine, I couldn't call landrover from where I was, I'm on Vodafone, the situation was, try and get home or stay stranded for days...

On the other hand, the statement that it was 'black / brown' in the coolant filler I've yet to see myself, I'm picking it up in the morning and will be carefully taking it home (If suitable) - To get it towed to MR certainly seems the best idea here, they seemed keen to investigate when I discussed with them this week and I certainly trust their opinion .

Whilst I appreciate we all love landrovers and don't like it when people such as myself come on here and have a dig at them but it's the dealer I'm unimpressed with, I have used Landies for the last 15 years and love them but am just gutted that my warranty is effectively worthless...

A good metallurgist will be able to tell you what happened.

Won't be hard to make a case.

You can request another mechanics opinion / report and take that to PAG.