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About John Robison
Expertise
I own J E Robison Service in Springfield, MA. We are Bosch Car Service for Land Rover, BMW, Mercedes, and other European lines. I can answer most questions about Land Rover service or repair. I'm known as a car enthusiast, machine aficianado, photographer, writer, and speaker. I've been around Land Rovers and British cars most of my life. Visit me at my car business, www.robisonservice.com or my author website, www.johnrobison.com. Check out my autism and writing blog at jerobison.blogspot.com or my photos on www.pbase.com/robisonphoto John Elder Robison

Experience
I have been a Land Rover service manager since Land Rover returned to North America in 1987. My company is a four-star Bosch Car Service facility, known nationwide for Land Rover service, overhaul, customization, and restoration. We're a dealer and service agent for APCO, backer of the Land Rover Assured and Certified dealer service contracts and Easycare independent service contracts. In addition to Land Rover our company services BMW, Jaguar, Mercedes-Benz, Rolls_Royce, and Bentley motorcars. We have factory-plus-level service capability for all makes. Visit my company online at www.robisonservice.com > service > land rover Also visit my blog at robisonservice.blogspot.com

Organizations
ASA IATN NPPA PPA

Publications
In the Land Rover world, my writing can be found in Land Rover Lifestyle, Land Rover Monthly, The Rover News, The Rover Log, The Rover Reference. In the wider publishing world, my work is published by 20 publishers in over 50 countries. Look Me in the Eye is a New York Times bestseller and an international bestseller.

Education/Credentials
I am ASE certified, Bosch Trained, and trained by Omnitec/T4 and Autologic on their Land Rover test systems.

You are here: Experts > Home/Garden > Auto Repair > Land Rover Repair > landrover discovery overheating

Land Rover Repair - landrover discovery overheating

Expert: John Robison - 11/3/2009

Question
Hi,

We had our Discovery's engine overhauled and head gaskets repaired about 1 1/2 months ago for a little over $3500. Then the orange radiator coolant began to leak heavily forming puddles on the ground. We took the vehicle in and had the radiator replaced & paid another $1200. A day later, the vehicle starting overheating. It's still overheating. Two different mechanics did the work described above & now they are each pointed the finger at the other. The dealer repaired the engine and gaskets & a local mechanic at a national chain repaired the radiator. The last mechanic stated the head gaskets weren't done correctly causing the system to clog and radiator to burst. That didn's quite make sense, but I'm no mechanic. The dealer states that it'll be a $675 charge just to open the engine and look at the gaskets...if no internal damage that'll be a $2376 bill, but if internal damage is found due to the overheating... the bill rises & of course none of this is covered by the original parts warranty. This is a nightmare... any guidance???

Answer
Your experience shows why people should find a trustworthy mechanic and stick with them. If I was the dealer, I'd surely question the competence of some chain store mechanic too. And if I was in the chain store, I could see the appeal of laying on the big bad dealer. And you are stuck in the middle.

However, there is a good chance neither are at fault. My guess is that your engine has a cylinder liner failure in the block, which the dealer mis-diagnosed as head gaskets and which caused over-pressurization of the cooling system, leading to radiator blowout.

There's an article on Land Rover liner failure on my blog at http://robisonservice.blogspot.com ; scroll down a couple posts to find it.

The only way to tell if I am right is to strip the engine. Who's going to pay for that? I don't know. When we do head gaskets to address overheating - which is what I suspect you had done for $3500 - we warn the owners that there may be larger problems in the block and we say it will have to come apart again if there are pressure problems. Many people are not aware of that risk, though.

People ship these vehicles to Robison Service from all over because we do have a lot of expertise with situations like this but I think you're in for a very costly repair where all the money spent to date is essentially wasted. You can read more on my website at RobisonService.com > service > land rover > advice > overheating article

I'm sorry I don't have a better answer but there it is. Let us know what happens.

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