Hi everyone.

I recently swapped my beloved P38 for a 2002 L322 Vogue. Needs plenty of work on it to tidy it up but there's a good car under it all.


When i got the car It was running with no problems. Everything worked. I stuck the diagnostic on it and there was a code for the electronic thermostat being open circuit. Upon investigation, it had rotted off inside the housing. There was also a slight water leak from the radiator and the water pump bearing had play in it. I decided to change the lot.

I've changed everything and bled back up which took a bit of time. Having previously owned a couple of P38's, at first i was concerned as the coolant temp went up to 103. I've now discovered that this is normal operating temperature. I was happy that i had a good circulation with the coolant temperature dropping a bit under revs. I noticed that the bottom hose and bottom half of the radiator remained stone cold until the temp was over 100 but even then i thought that they should be hotter. The bypass hose seemed rather hot though. As i understand, the thermostat doesn't open until 105degrees????? This is the bit i'm having trouble getting my head around. I can't get the coolant temp above 103. So i'm never gonna be able to open the thermostat? To confirm my curiosity I stripped out the thermostat last night to inspect it. Sure enough it says 105 on it. I stuck it in a pan of water with a jam thermometer and boiled it up. At 100 degrees it hadn't opened.

I was a little concerned that i may have a thermostat problem so for now i've put it back together without the thermostat in the housing. I can only get the coolant to a maximum of 83degrees now but the bottom hose and rest of the radiator are evenly heating up now.

Throughout all of this i have no heating. With or without the thermostat in, It's pretty much stone cold. Rear heater is the same. Before i changed the rad, pump and thermostat, the heating was marvelous. I'm pretty confident i haven't got an airlock. I've read about the valves on the inner passenger wing and also the changeover valve but i have a hard time believing that one of these is to blame given that it was all working smashing.

Is anyone able to give me some fault finding pointers please?

Thanks very much


Chris

Not much help, but......... bleeding them is a real B'stard! took me three attempts to get it somewhere close Current: 2011 FFRR Vogue SE 4.4 TDV8
Previous: -
2004 FFRR Vogue 4.4 V8 with LPG
1997 P38 4.0 SE with LPG
1997 P38 4.6 Vogue with LPG

Fixed! Fingers crossed

if you tell us what the fix was we will be better able to help next Chris xx. 2012 TDV8 Black Edition
2000 Disco. TD5
1975 series III

LOL. I knew someone would ask that. Be prepared for a very technical answer!

I'm new to this model Range Rover having previously owned P38's. I've not had it long and it's spent more time off the road and up in the air than on the road. As it's summer i hadn't really got to grips with the heating other than i know i had hot air coming from it when i got it. I wasn't aware that in order to get heat, I had to set the wheel in the centre vent to Red and then also turn the dials that surround the heated seat buttons.

I had the centre vent on hot but nothing was happening. As i sat and looked, i noticed that the dials around the seat heaters went to 16degrees. I imagined that without a cooling system built into the seat that there would be no way that those dials would alter the seat temperature. So having turned the dials up, i then got heat.

So in a nutshell, i didn't have the heater turned on.

I've also refitted the thermostat back into the housing as it seems that the usual operating temperature is around the 103-107 mark. I'm not overly comfortable that the engine runs that hot but i guess it's how BMW designed it. I may consider doing the 85degree thermostat mod down the line once I've researched it a bit more.

 2012 TDV8 Black Edition
2000 Disco. TD5
1975 series III