Paul Louw

[plouw]

Have recently purchased Land Rover Defender 110 TDi and have been experiencing overheating problems. Whenever towing a trailer and going up long hills the heat gauge rises to the red. Have had the radiator and fan checked as well as a check on dyno with no problems but overheating persists. It happens during day or night.Is there anybody out there who has had similar problems who can help.

Regards

[TerryS]

I cetainly hoped the first thing you checked for was that the coolant level was correct. Nothing will kill (as in DEAD) a diesel faster than overheating. In theory, gasoline engines are more able to withstand the occasional overheating, but in the real world, Land Rover gasloine engines also suffer catastophically from overheating.

Without knowing alot more, it would be impossible to diagnose your problem, but some possibilities are the usual, i.e. waterpump, plugged radiator passages, plugged cored pasageways in the engine, sticking thermostat, fan clutch not going into lockup, and low coolant. Check all of these. Also, eliminate the possibility that your guage is reading incorrectly by verifying the actual temperature of the water, with a probe thermometer into the radiator (not the expansion tank) or use an infrared scanner. Land Rover temp guages have a reputation for being very inaccurate, due often to a failed voltage stabilizer. The voltage to the guage should be 10.25 volts, which is the output of the stabilizer, but when they fail they deliver full system voltage (14.0+/-) when running at above idle.
I would strongly advise you get right to the bottom of this and don't push your luck.

[Strazzman]

A mate of mine had a similar problem, it ended up being a cracked head gasket, needless to say it cost a packet to repair and then the engine was never the same afterwards. I hope for your sake that is not the problem.