Low coolant. No leak?

[JARentDTOM]

Finally found my leak, at least I’m close. Did it in the dark, with a bright light. Below the pulleys.

 

[Quijote]

Just checked mine on that exact spot and it is bone dry. Also, Coolant level still largely unchanged since Xmas. Not that many miles on it since, but several hundred are still something. I'll continue to keep an eye on it.

 

[Quijote]

Another update: Still no drop in coolant and still dry. It has now been over 2k miles. This is weird, but I'll take it.

 

[Quijote]

Yet another update: Checked the coolant reservoir last week before heading up to Montreal again and decided to top off to the upper limit. That was maybe 1/2 cup. Just came back from a 700 mile round trip and a total of 7k miles since the incident a year ago and it has lost nothing since the last topping off a week ago and maybe 1/4 to 1/2 cup since a year ago. Still no signs of a leak anywhere. All measurements done with the LR4 cold overnight.

 

[ktm525]

Sounds about normal usage.

 

[Jimmy Brooks]

Happened to mine a couple of years ago. Ended up having to replace the water pump.

 

[Quijote]

Happened to mine a couple of years ago. Ended up having to replace the water pump.

I’m sure I’ll eventually have to do the same, but I’m still surprised by how slowly this is developing.

 

[JessAttia]

Hi everyone, I’m new to this forum and was trying to find some information on this... I have a 2012 HSE LR4 with 73k miles .... a week ago I noticed a low coolant light ... I have had zero signs of leaking or anything out of the ordinary ... im a mother of 2 young boys and have no idea about cars so I took it in to my local shop to check the light ... the tech said it doesn’t seem very low and topped it off anyway for me. He asked if I noticed any over heating or leaks and I said no... he said most likely nothing but for me to keep an eye on it...
fast forward a few days later and my mom and my 2 boys and my niece (2,5 and 6) were driving with me. My son drops something in the back seat so my mother reaches back to try to get it for him and accidentally kicks me out of drive into neutral... I quickly notice and get back into drive .... 5 min later I notice steam or what I thought was smoke surrounding my car... I was freaked out and panicking. I pulled over and called to get it towed and fluid was leaking at the front of my car while steaming pretty badly . ... now my Rover is sitting at Land Rover to be evaluated tomorrow ...

When you said @cperez
That you dodged a major bulllet, what did that mean exactly ? Could it have been a good thing that my mom accidentally caused this to happen ? I’m wondering if it was because of the gear shifting to neutral that caused this or if it was in fact from a “seep” or slow leak that I would have had no clue about??

Can anyone weigh in on this for me ?


Thanks !!

I just had this happen to me but the drop in level was not that significant. However, it got one of my indy techs to notice it and explore further and he discovered a leaking water pump. He said it was so subtle that he wouldn't even call it a leak, it was more like a seep. I said that I hadn't seen a drop of any type of fluid under my Rover ever. I then learned that the fluid was drying and congealing on the bottom of the pump before it hit the ground. They told me I had dodged a major bullet. I got the pump and related pipes replaced. My '13 has 47K on it and I don't think the water pump had ever been replaced.

 

[Troy A]

Hi everyone, I’m new to this forum and was trying to find some information on this... I have a 2012 HSE LR4 with 73k miles .... a week ago I noticed a low coolant light ... I have had zero signs of leaking or anything out of the ordinary ... im a mother of 2 young boys and have no idea about cars so I took it in to my local shop to check the light ... the tech said it doesn’t seem very low and topped it off anyway for me. He asked if I noticed any over heating or leaks and I said no... he said most likely nothing but for me to keep an eye on it...
fast forward a few days later and my mom and my 2 boys and my niece (2,5 and 6) were driving with me. My son drops something in the back seat so my mother reaches back to try to get it for him and accidentally kicks me out of drive into neutral... I quickly notice and get back into drive .... 5 min later I notice steam or what I thought was smoke surrounding my car... I was freaked out and panicking. I pulled over and called to get it towed and fluid was leaking at the front of my car while steaming pretty badly . ... now my Rover is sitting at Land Rover to be evaluated tomorrow ...

When you said @cperez
That you dodged a major bulllet, what did that mean exactly ? Could it have been a good thing that my mom accidentally caused this to happen ? I’m wondering if it was because of the gear shifting to neutral that caused this or if it was in fact from a “seep” or slow leak that I would have had no clue about??

Can anyone weigh in on this for me ?


Thanks !!

First, welcome to the forum Jess!

There are a lot of discussions here and elsewhere about how sensitive these particular engines are to coolant leaks and overheating. The water pump and a part of the cooling system called the coolant crossover pipe often need to be replaced somewhere in the 60K-80K miles window. (When I bought my LR4 with 72K miles on it I replaced mine immediately just to prevent issues.)

I don't want to speak for @cperez but my guess is that the "dodged a bullet" comment was that he managed to get it in for service without overheating the engine. A truly overheated engine in these can lead to very expensive repairs (like $15K-$20K in new/replacement engines).

I wish you good luck (and a good mechanic) and hopefully you'll have it all sorted out soon!

(As to the cause and whether or not the accidental shift had anything to do with it, no idea!)


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Quijote]

Hi everyone, I’m new to this forum and was trying to find some information on this... I have a 2012 HSE LR4 with 73k miles .... a week ago I noticed a low coolant light ... I have had zero signs of leaking or anything out of the ordinary ... im a mother of 2 young boys and have no idea about cars so I took it in to my local shop to check the light ... the tech said it doesn’t seem very low and topped it off anyway for me. He asked if I noticed any over heating or leaks and I said no... he said most likely nothing but for me to keep an eye on it...
fast forward a few days later and my mom and my 2 boys and my niece (2,5 and 6) were driving with me. My son drops something in the back seat so my mother reaches back to try to get it for him and accidentally kicks me out of drive into neutral... I quickly notice and get back into drive .... 5 min later I notice steam or what I thought was smoke surrounding my car... I was freaked out and panicking. I pulled over and called to get it towed and fluid was leaking at the front of my car while steaming pretty badly . ... now my Rover is sitting at Land Rover to be evaluated tomorrow ...

When you said @cperez
That you dodged a major bulllet, what did that mean exactly ? Could it have been a good thing that my mom accidentally caused this to happen ? I’m wondering if it was because of the gear shifting to neutral that caused this or if it was in fact from a “seep” or slow leak that I would have had no clue about??

Can anyone weigh in on this for me ?


Thanks !!

Not to speak for cperez, but generally, a catastrophic coolant loss can overheat and ruin your engine. Given their cost on these vehicles, that could mean a death sentence. So catching a cooling issue without a major overheating event is "dodging a major bullet."

These LR4's are great, but the cooling system is a weakness. Water pump leaks (usually small leaks) and crossover pipe leaks are typically the failure modes.

EDIT: Ha! I got interrupted mid-post and after posting I saw Troy had already answered!