2004 D2 - Heater not working, Vehicle overheating, Coolant Boiling

[taylorRichie]

Hi,

This morning I Jumped in the car to take my daughter to school. Typically after a few minutes of driving the heater kicks on and the interior temperature warms up. Today was particularly cold (13?). I made it all the way to her school 10 minutes away, and noticed the vehicle temp was going. I popped the hood and coolant overflow was going all over the place, and the coolant was boiling.

I let it cool down, and then headed to work (about a 5 mile drive from her school) I made it about 2 miles and pulled over, It was overheating. I Let it cool down for 10 minutes or so, then finished the drive to work, (stopping for a jug of coolant).

Anyway, This is the first time it has overheated, and I'm not sure where to begin diagnosing the culprit. My coolant reservoir has been a little low, but certainly not dry.

tl;dr: Cold Morning, Heater wasn't working, Car was overheating.

Thoughts?

Thanks!

 

[sholden7]

Did you look around for leaks, which would have caused the overheating and coolant everywhere?

 

[taylorRichie]

Unfortunately I didn't have a chance to look for leaks... I removed the radiator cap (put a small plastic tarp over it, then removed it) and Coolant went everywhere... So now I can't pinpoint a leak, because the coolant is dripping all over the place. I'll look around before going home today, hopefully find some indication.

 

[listerdiesel]

Thermostat stuck, water pump ditto or head gasket.

Check the bleed needle in the header tank is clear, as it will develop air locks if the air cannot get away from the water pump and radiator top chamber.

Peter

 

[pjkbrit]

Headgasket is probable....even if the thermostat was the first item to fail, overheating a Rover V8 is never a good thing....esp. a 4.6

 

[JohnB]

Any chance your coolant froze up? Lets say that if one of your smaller coolant lines froze ie..overflow line or similar that could cause your coolant to stop flowing even if the radiator was not frozen up.

 

[pdxrovermech]

i've been seeing a lot of reservoir caps crumbling apart

 

[grips03]

When my 04 did this I used

UVIEW 560000 Combustion Leak Tester (bought it from Amazon)

to check for exhaust gases in the coolant. Do the coolants hoses pressurize past 20psi?