Cooling system (With gruesome pics)

IMPORTANT UPDATE:
We are now starting to replace radiators on early (95 on) and later model P38s as well as Discovery 1-2 vehicles at a rapid rate.
If you own a P38 or Discovery 1-2 model then you need to consider if your cooling system is in top condition, if in doubt as the doc says seek urgent technical advice and still in doubt replace or service radiator either way.
A failing radiator will destroy a good engine in no time, at speed on a high way a burst pipe can cause severe damage in 15 seconds

and onto the original post.....

Cooling is very critical to the performance and life of any engine.
Any internal or external blockage of sorts can seriously damage the engine to a point that it becomes useless, in other words the engine can be written off due to heat stress damage etc, believe me this happens more often than you would care to think and it can and probably will happen to everyone at some point, care and attention will prevent this from happening to you now or in the future.

Additives to the cooling system like radiator block leaks etc are at best a very temporary solution and should not be left in the system for long no matter what the brand/manufacturer says on the container, remember they want to sell there product and we tend to believe what we read on these well packaged products.

Every cooling system should be flushed thoroughly every 2 years but more often in severe dusty environments, you may think the coolant reservoir is clear but its in the engine block where most if not all the dust and other debris settles to the bottom of the block creating hot spots.
Hot spots will then cause your engine to loose power and use more fuel, its a delicate balance that’s very often over looked by mechanics and DIYers in all sectors.

Having previously worked and qualified on Earth moving equipment like CAT, Komatsu etc we used to change water filters on service's...... now bare in mind these machines are not cheap to buy so it's no brain storm why they are fitted with these kind of filters to keep the coolant clear of harmful particles like rust, dust and other odd metal bits from the manufacturing process.
The Range Rover is no different or for that matter any other car brand.

Anti Freeze-summer coolant additives:
Now this is very important, to go into exact details would take pages and pages to explain.
Simply its very crucial that the correct type and quantity is added, its aids in raising the boiling point and prevents corrosion, if you live in a hard water area then use distilled water.

Adding too mush additive can also be detrimental to your engine, always follow what the manufacturer specifies and do your self a favour, keep away from cheap anti freeze brands that are unknown, here in SA we have a large selection of both quality and cheap, the cheap stuff is known to cause damage to plastic's within the cooling system, I've seen this for myself.

Below pictures are form a P38, this is common and so over looked.

Below pics:

Just removed from a Range Rover that had a leaking transmission cooler..

Upon further investigating other coolers had to be removed for cleaning as they were seriously blocked.

With the coolers looking like this serious damage to both engine and transmission will occur and worst part is to see all this a complete strip down is required.

Front of radiator (Not visible when in place)

Radiator should be replaced but there is no stock at present so it will be sent in for professional cleaning and minor repair to the top little pipe that always breaks off. (protection shield coming soon)

Fan side, you wouldn't have thought it would be blocked up...

There's a transmission cooler there somewhere.

These are becoming a problem on older P38s

If you see the bottom of the radiator and it looks oily wet then further investigating is required.

Another blocked radiator, the transmission cooler again looked like the picture above and at the time of replacing the radiator (new) around the begining of 2010 it all looked ok, just goes to show how quick a leaking transmission cooler can block up a new radiator, dust over a short period will stick to the leaking oil and build up, as it blocks up the oil is sucked through areas of the radiator that is free and so on until, it totally blocks up.

From a L322......

Drained coolant from a L322 and this was after 3 flushes, it took another 3 more to clear the system completly.

it looks as if another brand of anti freeze was added to the cooling system which caused this milky mix.

NEVER MIX ANTI FREEZE BRANDS due to chemical reactions that will cause severe damage to your motor /cooling system

Cruise control.

The joys of using cruise control........................ and then it fails

The system uses 3 primary components to engage cruise control.
1. The Vac pump unit attached to the EAS box.
2. Two electronic modules located on right side under lower dash trim.

Rarely do all three items go but it can and does happen, to date I've had to replace all three components on two Range Rovers P38's, the usual problem with a non functioning CC is cracked piping on the system.
This pipe runs from the Vacuum pipe to the brake pedal where it is attached via a vacuum breaker switch.
The pipe ends crack (due to age) on both ends, also note that on the Vacuum pump end the pipe is split into an additional two more shorter pipes, these two need inspecting, any sign of cracks in the piping requires replacement using a suitable thick walled rubber pipe, a good quality fuel hose usually works well.

Pictures of the Electronic modules to follow soon

Ignition coils (GEMs) and not what to do

Ah the ignition system.......
At some point you are going to pick up an ignition related problem of sorts, be it HT leads (The wires that go to the spark plugs) injectors (Very rarely go) and so on.

UPDATE:
So I've been tinkering with coils recently, my local electronic ECU repair station reckons Hyundai coils are the same, I managed to get 4 for testing purposes on a customers car.....mmmm bad move and they blew at around 500 km's of use so don't go the Hyundai route.

Without going into details of wasted spark technology I'll let the pictures do the talking!

We have brand new coil packs in stock.
Loose single coils R900
Complete coil packs R2870

Coils can easily be replaced once coil pack has been removed

Later models use the square Bosch coil pack and there are two of them.

Bodge repairs, no Low/High range selection

Bodge jobs, this is the kind of repair that makes me fume.
Owners as well as repairers take short cuts, the P38 is no vehicle to try this sort of short cut repairs.
Its way to complex with an array of computers to try it and when bodge jobs are done the results are worse than a open heart operation, the time it takes to sort out a major bodge job can be days on end........

In the pictures below is a typical bodge job repair, I was informed that it was carried out by a qualified LR mechanic, Some how I doubt he was a LR mechanic let alone a mechanic at all.


At all the repairs were carried out the Range selector still didn't work so more digging into the workshop manual was needed, what seemed to take forever actually didn't and within 5 mins I had a solution to the problem
To cut a long story short the speed pick up on the transfer box had gone open circuit, in other words it was faulty, slapped in a 2nd part to confirm and by George I now had low and high range operating like it should


The faulty part:
A simple but very important piece of the puzzle, it prevents you selecting while the vehicle is in motion above a certain speed, 5kph I think

Sunroof

A better update to the this section is near, in the meantime please note that if you remove the sunroof motor there is a special way to synchronize it if you have manually turned it once removed, the RAVE manual does give a good description of the procedure and is important, if you don't you will cause serious damage to the sunroof rails, these rails are becoming scarce and are darn pricey.
 
Most of the time when your sunroof stops working it's because a plastic clip to the front, mounted on each side breaks.
The clips are available (I carry a set of 3) from Land Rover at a reasonable price.
Replacement requires sunroof glass to be removed and at the same time inspection and lubrication of moving parts is ideal.
When lubricating these parts use a silicon based spray, anything heavier seems to gum things up and tends to cause more problems, the rails are made of aluminium and so are some of the other parts.
The bits that break causing your sunroof to tilt open on one side are made of plastic and are not repairable in any way.
The only solution here is a total removal of the sunroof mechanism to determine what went wrong, most of the time its quicker and cheaper to source a good second hand mechanism from a breakers yard.

 On the subject of sunroofs there is a couple of weak points like leaks.
The drain tubes are well secured but where they terminate at the drain end is a concern point.
The clear plastic pipe is merely popped into the rubber tip end, this drain piece blocks up and
yes you get the picture, water starts entering the car.

However a simple snip off the ends, securing properly into drain end with tape will ward off any
future blockage (see pic below)