Overheating after water pump change?

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Author Message   Santo Nucifora (Santo) Posted on Tuesday, September 10, 2002 - 05:26 pm:    I have an odd problem and am wondering if anyone has come across this or has a clue as to what the problem might be... My water pump came apart (fan and spindle came out of the water pump) last week and I had it replaced with genuine parts by a remote mechanic. It was too far from a dealer and he replaced the water pump and the timing belt. The radiator or fan itself were not damaged in any way and the mechanic was surprised. When the fan came off, the car shut itself down after I lost power and I had to walk a little ways down the street to get my fan belt. Luckily I broke down in front of a mechanic(the only one within about 30 miles). I made the 2 hour trip home without incident. On coming home from a two hour trip (getting there was no problem but I did notice the temperature gauge showed it running at about 3/4 of the way up the gauge which wasn't normal at all), I noticed that my Disco was running very hot. The gauge showed the temperature needle somewhere between the hot red mark and the letter H. I thought it was a problem with the gauge because I never had it go past the middle of the gauge before and figured the mechanic screwed something up. It was very stupid, but I took a chance and drove it for about an hour until I was close to home and I finally slowed down enough that the rad boiled over and coolant escaped from the fill bottle cap. I refilled it with normal water once it cooled down and drove the next 10 minutes with it boiling over again as I got in my driveway. It got hot immediately when I drove it home. Besides the overheating, the car drove normally. The next day I consulted Discoweb and hesitantly checked my oil to see if I had any coolant in it and it was fine. The water looked good too. Am I just lucky or are these cars a little more beefier in regards to overheating? I filled the overflow bottle with coolant and brought it to the LR dealer for checking. It did not overheat on the way there but it was maybe a 20-25 minute drive so that was not a good test. The LR mechanic could find nothing wrong except that the radiator was very hot. Flow was good, the water pump was fine and the thermostat checked out okay. He put it under load with the AIR on and it did run hot. He cleared some minor debris from between the two rads but otherwise he couldn't find anything wrong. He'll be replacing the coolant because it's mostly water now but now I'm a little worried that it might overheat when I least expect it. Does anyone know what it might be? Thanks for any help, Santo   Dee Cantrell (Discodad) Posted on Tuesday, September 10, 2002 - 06:09 pm:    Sounds like he did not burp the air out of the system.. You got realy lucky withthat one i had the fan explode on my 88 RRC it took out the raditor severly modified the hood and pad tore throught the hoses and belts and caused me to cave in the drivers door with my foot...   Steve (Scrover) Posted on Tuesday, September 10, 2002 - 06:18 pm:    Santo, It will continue to overheat when you least expect it until you find the problem. I had the same issues for a couple of months with my 93 RR. I didn't want to believe that my radiator was blocked (it's the most expensive part!) so I systematically changed everything else first. It's possible the viscous fan clutch may be bad, however, let the engine get hot, turn it off and try to put your hand on the fan side of the radiator in different places; be careful, it will be hot. If you feel any spots that are cooler than others, your radiator is blocked. If you take off the top and bottom hoses, and run water through it, you still get what seems to be a good flow. That's what fooled me. You can get it rodded out; I bought a new one. The fan clutch is a recommend item to renew with the water pump. I tried that but it didn't help. Good luck. Steve   p m Posted on Tuesday, September 10, 2002 - 07:38 pm:    Santo, what do you mean by timing belt? is it what mechanic told you he replaced? what Disco do you have? peter   Santo Nucifora (Santo) Posted on Tuesday, September 10, 2002 - 08:35 pm:    Peter, I've got a 98 Disco I LSE. Sorry, timing belt is probably the wrong term. Fan belt is probably more correct. I'm not much of a mechanic so I'm not making light of your question. It's pretty much the main belt under the hood towards the front that connects everything and makes the fan turn Santo   EricV (Bender2033) Posted on Thursday, September 12, 2002 - 12:00 am:    Yikes! You guys are making me worry. I have 85k on my disco and I'm about to change the hoses/belt/thermostat before MAR ... should I bite the bullet and change the water pump at this time too ($189 ouch) as a preventative measure? Thanks for any advice.   Bill K (Bill_K) Posted on Thursday, September 12, 2002 - 07:28 am:    Eric, call DAP for the water pump. I got mine for about $70 from them. Abd absolutely change the pump if you'll be doing all the rest.   Paul T. Schram (Paulschram) Posted on Thursday, September 12, 2002 - 09:56 am:    Dee, Santo: Were there any indications you were about to suffer a catastrohpic failure of your water pumps? Mine has been squealing (yes, my diagnostic skills are being questioned strongly here) and I have replaced many of the front of engine components only to find it appears to be the water pump. Now, the squealing is becoming very intermittent and on occasion, does not surface at all. There is little to no runout on the pump shaft though. I really wish DAP would put more of their parts availability and prices on their website! Paul   Dee Cantrell (Discodad) Posted on Thursday, September 12, 2002 - 06:03 pm:    Paul I told you where to go for parts go straight to the cow, not to the grocery store Go to a Medical supply and get a Stethoscope then listen to all the ancillaries to determine which one is calling your name... On my old Rangie the temp started to ramp-up over time also there was shit floating in the over-flow tank, I took that sign as a fix me or ill screw you from my Rangie Not that my Land Rovers have ever fucked me, we used to make family road trip bets as to how far we could make it before I had to crack open the tool box. No room for an Ice Chest with all the tools and spares... Now when I fix an problem I rebuild or replace all the associated components. like if one hose fails there all about too, and most will fail around 3 in the am in the middle of Arizona . So I changed the W Pump T-Stat and hoses. I also had the Radiator Rodded out. ran nice and cool for a month until the Timing Gear and Head gasket went... so did my patience... Funny reading the B2B 2002 North American Teak and how many over heating problems the group encountered... It funny most people over look the Radiator and Anti freeze all the time the same concern and effort needs to be applied to the cooling system as goes into the oil and oil filter service intervals...   Jroc (Jroc) Posted on Thursday, September 12, 2002 - 06:45 pm:    As Steve has already said, check the "Viscous drive & fan" or as we call it here in the states the fan clutch. These babies go far more frequently than the water pump. Might as well change both the water pump and the fan clutch though. I just had this happen and I just ordered both of these items. I'm also getting ready for MAR and I'm hoping that this does the trick. I'm also going to clean the radiator out real good. As far as where to get these items Nathan is the MAN! Gotta love Discount Rovers!!! Good Luck guys and I look forward to meeting some of you at MAR.   Dee Cantrell (Discodad) Posted on Thursday, September 12, 2002 - 07:08 pm:    Easy check on the Viscous if its cold and you can move it ok if its hot and while the engine is OFF you can move it time to replace it... Also too tru on the viscous I had 2 go bad in a 12 month period...   Santo Nucifora (Santo) Posted on Thursday, September 12, 2002 - 10:04 pm:    Paul, I had a noise that I could have swarn was a bad catalytic converter. It wasn't so much a squeal as a it was more of a rumble. It must have been the bearings going. I also noticed a smell of coolant on occasion but didn't see any leakage on the road. As for the continuing saga of the overheating after the water pump change, it's now been three full days and the LR dealer still has my Disco. They took out the water pump, checked it and put it back. It was not to blame. They rodded the radiator (hoping it would fix it) but now the fourth mechanic is looking at it. It must still be overheating for them to still be checking it. I'm not sure if I should be happy or extremely pissed. At least they're not sending the car home saying it's fixed when it's not. It saves me the trip back and I appreciate that. I'll let you know how I make out if I ever get the car back Santo 98 Disco I LSE   EricV (Bender2033) Posted on Thursday, September 12, 2002 - 11:22 pm:    BillK - Thanks for the DAP hook up! I called them today and got their last one! Only $90 !! I also asked him about a stepper motor (IAC) for a '96, he said they were only $90 too! Much cheaper than the Dealer! Thanks again!   Santo Nucifora (Santo) Posted on Tuesday, September 17, 2002 - 07:28 pm:    They re-cored the radiator and all is well. Thanks for the input, Santo 98 Disco I LSE   Bill K (Bill_K) Posted on Wednesday, September 18, 2002 - 07:50 am:    Eric, they charged you $90 for the water pump? I could have swore it was $65 about 9 months ago. I guess their prices are going up, either way it's a lot cheaper than most other places.