Advice Please

[Numan68]

Hi all,
My 1997 300 tdi has lost its heater and is just blowing cold air out,also ive noticed that when checking the water levels in the expansion tank it has pressure in it from cold and kicks out water when you open it,im assuming these are realated things.Does anyone have any idea what the problem is please ? Could it be the thermostat ?
Any advice would be much appreciated.
Cheers Trev

[Cannonball Bob]

Head gasket has gone.
Exhaust gases are getting in to the coolant, and boiling it off or overpressurising it so it gets forced out of the weakest point in the system where ever that may be which reduces the fluid level below the top of the block where the heater take-off is.
The overpressure from cold is the exhaust stroke leaking across the head so instead of blowing it all down the exahust pipe it pressurises the coolant side of the house which manifests itself at the header tank.
Easy to fix (I did mine in a French hotel car park overseen by the lovely Audrey....<sigh>) although on that occasion the head itself was too far gone.
New gasket kit is a couple of hundred quid, new head (and I'd recommend it whilst everything's apart) is around £500 from Turner Engineering near Gatwick. Takes a day, start to finish.

[V8_Disco]

I would also second the Gasget option, Might concider a new head how long has it been like this, has the car overheated?

A

[Underdog]

I would also second the Gasget option


Complete agreement all round.
Try reading this, http://www.landrovernet.com/forum/showthread.php?t=113567 ............you're certainly not alone.:rolleyes:

[Cannonball Bob]

Whereabouts are you anyway Trev? I'm on call next week so could be available to strip a head (again) if you're not too far away.

[Numan68]

Well thats good news then :rolleyes:,it hasent over heated at all the temp gauge stays just below half way and she is running great so this seems strange to me.
Im not far from Lincoln mate are you near me at all ? Its got to be sorted.
Cheers all,
Trev

[bananahead]

You say it hasnt overheated but when my cylincer head went, for some reason i drove along and the temp guage shot up and then went back to normal within about 30 seconds. Your car may have overheated. I also suffered the same symptoms as you. Check the head or get the head checked.

[Cannonball Bob]

Sorry Trev, I'm down South.
A 300TDi willl run for ages with head gasket blown although the longer you do this the more likely it is that a new head will cease to be optional.
The lack of a visual rise in temperature is indeed misleading. Mine did exactly the same thing until it really let go, then it bent the needle it went in to the red that fast.
The temperature sensor is in the top of head and after my experience I came to the conclusion it goes on sensing the mix of coolant and exhaust gases which just happen to end up around the same temperature as normal coolant.

[Numan68]

No worries mate,thanks for the offer anyway,im going to get it checked out tommorow and go from there,sods law realy just spent a load of dosh having work done on the house so the mrs is well impressed with the prospect of a large repair bill for me disco :rolleyes:.
Cheers all,
Trev