OK...this is not the way I envisioned my first post going...
Today has been a day of real highs and lows for me and the wife. After waiting more than 10 days to have our '99 Disco II (~95k miles) delivered (WooHoo!) to our home in Pittsburgh from NYC where we inspected it and test drove it, we drove it over to AAA to get it registered. (Roughly 12 miles from my house...My plan was get it registered, then bring it home and spend the rest of the day in the driveway changing all the fluids as part of the 90k service.)
Knowing that the engine had a head gasket replaced (along with the plugs, wires, head, h20 pump, and h20 pump gasket), upon delivery I had immediately checked the fluid levels and found everything to be correct. When we took it out, I kept an eye on the temp...for the first 11 miles it was steady in the dead center of the gauge. Then in the last mile it start creeping up and spiked just into the red as I pulled into the AAA parking lot where I stuck my head under the car just long enough to see a fountain of green coolant dumping from somewhere near the bottom of the engine. I quickly shut it off.
Other than the spike in temp and loss of coolant, the engine sounded fine when I shut it down...no SES, no Amigos...just the light on the temp gauge starting to come on. I had AAA flat bed it back to my house and the drive, my wife, and I pushed it into position in my driveway. Due to family obligations I wasn't able to pull the plastic shroud off the under side of the engine to pinpoint the source of the leak, but I'm hoping it's just a burst coolant hose.
I ran it past my 86 yr old grandfather (a former mechanic) who said that based on my description, that's probably what happened. He said that if it is just a hose, replace it and the rest of the radiator/cooling hoses, then take it straight to a radiator shop to have the entire cooling system tested and flushed.
So, OK...before I ask this, let me just say that the dealer is ~300 miles away, so returning it really isn't an option.
That said, anyone have any other helpful suggestions or have I crossed into the realm of things that are just too ugly for most folks to tackle on their own? Obviously I'll be trying to locate the leak and replacing all of the hoses.
Today has been a day of real highs and lows for me and the wife. After waiting more than 10 days to have our '99 Disco II (~95k miles) delivered (WooHoo!) to our home in Pittsburgh from NYC where we inspected it and test drove it, we drove it over to AAA to get it registered. (Roughly 12 miles from my house...My plan was get it registered, then bring it home and spend the rest of the day in the driveway changing all the fluids as part of the 90k service.)
Knowing that the engine had a head gasket replaced (along with the plugs, wires, head, h20 pump, and h20 pump gasket), upon delivery I had immediately checked the fluid levels and found everything to be correct. When we took it out, I kept an eye on the temp...for the first 11 miles it was steady in the dead center of the gauge. Then in the last mile it start creeping up and spiked just into the red as I pulled into the AAA parking lot where I stuck my head under the car just long enough to see a fountain of green coolant dumping from somewhere near the bottom of the engine. I quickly shut it off.
Other than the spike in temp and loss of coolant, the engine sounded fine when I shut it down...no SES, no Amigos...just the light on the temp gauge starting to come on. I had AAA flat bed it back to my house and the drive, my wife, and I pushed it into position in my driveway. Due to family obligations I wasn't able to pull the plastic shroud off the under side of the engine to pinpoint the source of the leak, but I'm hoping it's just a burst coolant hose.
I ran it past my 86 yr old grandfather (a former mechanic) who said that based on my description, that's probably what happened. He said that if it is just a hose, replace it and the rest of the radiator/cooling hoses, then take it straight to a radiator shop to have the entire cooling system tested and flushed.
So, OK...before I ask this, let me just say that the dealer is ~300 miles away, so returning it really isn't an option.
That said, anyone have any other helpful suggestions or have I crossed into the realm of things that are just too ugly for most folks to tackle on their own? Obviously I'll be trying to locate the leak and replacing all of the hoses.