LR3 Small Mystery Coolant Leak

[Ruper]

Houm_WA I didn't take your comment, personally as an affront to our friend. I think someone should come up with a 'Sarcasm" font so people know when we are just doing that. I hope I didn't offend with my comments in the same vein.
In my experience, all be it not with LR there are certain manufacturer that I usually stick with for some systems, Gates is my goto for coolant stuff. hoses. belts etc, Was a heavy equipment mechanic and shop super, and they never let us down on those so I figure they are pretty heavy duty.
However I am not the end all be all, but if I have something I am not familiar with I do stick with the manufacture of the vehicle as close as budget allows.

Good Luck

 

[Houm_WA]

My opinion is that the safest bet is factory parts. In some cases, like the air springs, you can save a bundle with the right aftermarket parts (like Arnott) but usually you try to save $100 and end up spending $500 doing the job again. I didn't think water pumps or hoses were all that expensive to risk using anything but LR parts... especially considering that overheating seems to be the 4.4's only Achilles heel.

Agree on the need for a sarcasm emoji or font! We are all here to help...I try to have a little fun now and then too.

 

[remember5]

I agree with Houm_WA, I use factory LR parts 99% of the time but bought an aftermarket fuel pump to save $300 and now have an imtermittent no start issue that is driving me crazy and I'm wondering if it's the aftermarket fuel pump since I'm unable to figure out any other reason I would have intermittent starting.

 

[Ruper]

Funny how our opinions differ. As far as Air susp parts I was leaning toward LR parts, as my air struts are getting sketchy. crap now that I have said that I will have a yellow rockin' rover in the morning for sure. Maybe I'll start looking after market and be able to go ahead and get my struts now.

Guess that's why they say different strokes...Still have lots to learn and still having fun doing so.
Enjoy the ride boys...I got about 30 more days then she is back on the sand fishing again.

 

[PWD2]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I was able to finally resolve this. It turned out it was the water pump. Very surprising since it has probably less than 15k miles on it. It was an Airtex replacement that had the cardboard gasket. I think it was leaking at the shaft seal though not the gasket.

Hoping to find a better pump I bought the oem replacement from roverparts, and was surprised to find when i opened the box that it is an Airtex. The one from roverparts did have a metal gasket though but the rest of the pump looked the same. Time will tell if it will hold up any better.

If anyone has any suggestions for high quality water pumps that last let me know. Dealer gave me a quote of $420 plus tax for their pump and I am not interested in paying that.

One last tip, I finally found my leak with an automotive stethoscope. Probing around the cooling system while i had a vacuum pulled and as soon as i touched the water pump pulley it was clear that's where the leak was. I would suggest picking one of these up. Cheap tool that is very handy.

Interesting use of a stethoscope. Could you see evidence of the leak once you isolated it?

I love my LR3. It's so well designed in many ways but let down badly in others. LR not following through consistently on quality and maintainability. Some things leave you just shaking your head, and then they made it worse with the lr4.