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93 Disco Engine/Auto Gearbox running hot

3K views 6 replies 4 participants last post by  troverman 
#1 ·
Looking forward to learning heaps from you people, many thanks for gettings this forum up and maintaining a god level of "life!"

Now to the good stuff. A couple of weeks back my 93 Disco, which has about 190,000 KM's started running hot. I found it was loosing coolant through a split hose at the back of the water pump. I replaced the hose and put coolant in 50/50 mix. I also checked out the thermostat and found it had kind of sprung into a funny position, sort of half open/closed. Anyway, as I'm in Australia, pretty warm, I just thought I leave the thermostat out for now.

The engine still runs at over half way on the temperature gauge, and today my automatic gearbox temperature light came on. I figure that cools through the radiator too. I flushed my radiator with the usual 3 buck flush you can put in it, but I also took off the top and bottom hose and I seem to have a pretty good rate of flow, i.e. the water goes in quick and comes out seemingly unhindered. Logically though it seems to be a radiator problem doesn't it? All my lube levels in the engine and gearbox seem good.

Just more info in case you are still reading :cool: The water in Perth is really hard, so is it actually likely I have a calcium build up in the radiator? If so can it be budged? Can this be the case if I have a good flow through the radiator when I put my water hose in the top?

Don't know where to go from here but am afraid of getting shafted by a dealer with a big bill so would really appreciate a good push in the right direction. Would love some fast feedback then hopefully I can set about fixing it over the weekend.

Thanks all! Have a great week!
 
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#2 ·
cooling problem

It is really hard to identify a cooling sytem fault from a couple of sentences in a forum. But if the car was running cool before the split hose problem it would indicate something happened when the hose went. 1. Are you loosing coolant or is the level staying normal. 2. When you took out the thermostat did you have the radiator and block reverse flushed at a radiator repair shop. 3. Are you getting a build up of crud in the coolant. The problem if no1 is happening is either a blocked radiator(water getting pushed into top tank faster than it is comming out the bottom) this causes a build up in the top section and will either go out the overflow or blow a top mounted hose on the engine. If you did no2 the water comming out during the reverse flush would show if there is any crud in the system usually from people not using/changing inhibitor.No3 if there is a build up up creamy froth in the overflow tank could indicate a blown head gasket, you really don't want that one, but tdi are very easy to cook.
 
#3 ·
If you are experiencing cooling problems, don't drive your vehicle until you have the problem sorted. I agree with aussie disco97.

As you live in Perth, why are you using anti freeze? What you should be using is distilled water. Firstly, because pure water cools more efficiently, by far, than glycol/water mixes. Secondly, you won't have problems with chemicals building up inside the radiator coils.
 
#4 ·
I live in Perth as well the reason we use antifreeze over here is it contains corrosion inhibitors, these stop the electrolysis happening between the two disimilar metals(aluminium head and cast iron block) if you use distilled water only the head will slowly eat away and cause build up in the cooling sytem. Most heads last about 5-7 years,depending on the quality/ density of the aluminium casting, if you don't run a corrosion inhibitor. Then you are up for either a new head or having yours welded and re-faced :lol:
 
#5 ·
Update on cooling/heating...whatever...

OK guys, stripped off the radiator and flushed the block and radiator seven ways to heaven and clouds of crud came out the radiator, including some stop leak lumps which some nob (yeh me!) added to plug a leaky heater matrix some months ago. Anyheeeeew....I'm running 100% coolant, no water, as a few people said, the less water the better, no water, better still. I guess the more corrossion inhibitor the better hey?!

Put new thermostat in too as my old one had gone off track and stuck.

Radiator temp is perfect now, right in the middle as the hand book said, and saved myself a couple of hudred bucks, which I can spend on finding out why my gear box is running hot.

I bought a new sender, new transmission fluid and a auto gearbox service kit for my 93 landy. Tomorrow I'll drop the fluid out and refill, fit the new temperature sender into the oil cooler pipe and hope this fixes the auto-gearbox temp light coming on.

Aussie Disco...you shound like you might be very local to me (I'm in Trigg) and running the same motor in the same climate etc.

What the hell's with this gearbox mate? It runs perfectly...no slip, no clunk, fluid seems good, but fluid doesn't seem very viscous, but not smelling burn or anything ominous at least. Got all my bits from Odin Auto Parts, guys there said the temp senders do go dicky. Also, bloke at auto transmissions R us at osborne park said same, "stick in a new sender, landies are known for them going faulty."

Can only try. Any other thoughts, words of caution and invites to fish and drink are most welcome! :drive:
 
#7 ·
You should NEVER run pure coolant. In hot climates, it should be 50-50 water / coolant. In bitter cold, like here in the northeast US, we sometimes run a little more coolant than water, but NEVER more than 70-30 coolant to water. All coolant will cool the engine FAR less than the 50-50 mix. It can also cause build up, and coolant itself is designed to operate best only with water mix. Try using Mercedes-Benz coolant, it is far better than regular green, and the anti-corrosion is better too. Just make sure you get all the green out 1st.
 
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