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Hi,

Has anyone experienced something like this? I was driving at a normal speed with AC on in the afternoon and suddenly this happened.

I realized the heat gauge was on extreme right and pulled over to check. The moment i stopped the engine the coolant tank exploded.

Any ides what could have gone wrong?

 

 

 

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Your cooling system is malfunctioning and that's why expansion bottle is highly pressurized. This could be because of several reasons and first to doubt is Engine Fan (viscose clutch / electric fan) is working or not? Isn't the radiator blocked due to corrosion or leaking due to external damage? Maybe any of the radiator hose ruptured due to pressure and leaked all the coolant. Last but not least maybe your AC fan stopped working.

In such scenarios possibilities are endless and proper diagnose can only help, but next time you encounter the heat gauge moved substantially to the hot red zone, immediately switch off the engine and pour water on the radiator fins "without opening the radiator cap or expansion bottle cap". Any car engine when overheating have only a few seconds of life to survive without blowing the head gasket and that will be major expense to open the engine head and replace the gasket, worst scenario if head is warp especially in Range Rover aluminium block engine, very easy to warp the head means to replace the engine head itself.

I seriously hope while taking the video you have switched off the engine.

Once you switch off and let the engine cool down by spraying water externally then after 10-15 mins you can switch on again for 5-10 seconds and find out which thing is causing this overheating. It could be something simple as an engine or AC fan relay and little tap or open/close could again start the fan (if you are lucky).

I had a similar issue in my P38 Range while in stop and go traffic in Meena bazaar when all of sudden AC started blowing warm air and I saw the heat gauge moving towards red and switched off the engine. Stepped out and push the car in the proper parking and then discovered that top radiator hose burst due to stop and go traffic stress in the month of june-july and lost almost half the coolant and cause the engine to boil.

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First of all just a little pedantry. Its a 1998. It might be registered as a 1999 but its a 98 because of having a GEMS engine. Even my 98 was registered as a 99.

Anywhoo. These bottles are know to get old and split at the seam although personally have never experienced such in the 4 p38s Ive owned. 

Although Gauravs cut and paste is valid but Im thinking a hose would have let go way before pressure build up let to the bottle splitting

Also it could be a combination of both. Bottle was weak and pressure just accelerated the process.

The radiator is a know weak point in these cars due to its very thin pipes which easily get clogged. For now I would replace the bottle and keep a hawks eye on the temp gauge.

I wouldl also invest in a cheap scanner to get live data on the temp. The temp needle is highly inaccurate. By the time the needle leaves the 12 o clock position and starts moving towards the red. Its almost too late anyways.

Also I would check my viscous fan. Easy to do. Look it up and also see if the condenser aux fans are coming on. 

A little mod on these cars is to unplug and. Then short the pressure switch using a paper clip going in to the AC filter located behind the driver side foglight. it has access from under the car. With this everytime your compressor kicks in the aux fan also kick in. This general gives you better AC performance anyways since the condenser is always cool.

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I have never seen a header tank explode. There must have been some serious pressure in the tank for that to happen. Hard plastic tanks can age and develop micro cracks which weakens them and they can leak so I surmise if there was enough pressure it could explode a worn tank. 

My course of action would be to replace the header tank, refill and bleed the system and do some basic tests. 

If the engine overheated to that extent, the first test I would do is a sniff test to check for hydrocarbons in the cooling system. You can buy sniff test kits cheap online. It will tell you if you have an issue with the head gasket or a crack in the cylinder letting exhaust gases into the coolant. 

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4 hours ago, desertdude said:

First of all just a little pedantry. Its a 1998. It might be registered as a 1999 but its a 98 because of having a GEMS engine. Even my 98 was registered as a 99.

Anywhoo. These bottles are know to get old and split at the seam although personally have never experienced such in the 4 p38s Ive owned. 

Although Gauravs cut and paste is valid but Im thinking a hose would have let go way before pressure build up let to the bottle splitting

Also it could be a combination of both. Bottle was weak and pressure just accelerated the process.

The radiator is a know weak point in these cars due to its very thin pipes which easily get clogged. For now I would replace the bottle and keep a hawks eye on the temp gauge.

I wouldl also invest in a cheap scanner to get live data on the temp. The temp needle is highly inaccurate. By the time the needle leaves the 12 o clock position and starts moving towards the red. Its almost too late anyways.

Also I would check my viscous fan. Easy to do. Look it up and also see if the condenser aux fans are coming on. 

A little mod on these cars is to unplug and. Then short the pressure switch using a paper clip going in to the AC filter located behind the driver side foglight. it has access from under the car. With this everytime your compressor kicks in the aux fan also kick in. This general gives you better AC performance anyways since the condenser is always cool. 

"A little mod on these cars is to unplug and. Then short the pressure switch using a paper clip going in to the AC filter located behind the driver side foglight. it has access from under the car. With this everytime your compressor kicks in the aux fan also kick in. This general gives you better AC performance anyways since the condenser is always cool. "

Hi @desertdude

Can you please explain this further? Possibly with a reference image or video.

And yes i  seem to believe too that this is a 98 model cos some parts were available only when searched for a 98 model in the spare parts shop in Shj. Thanks for the info!

Cheers.

 

 

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Sorry bro sold my sold my last P38 this Janaury the one in my avatar. And wont be getting another one anytime soon, so no pics. Its the AC receiver drier some call it filter. Its like a metal pepsi can with pipes coming out of it. On the side there is a pressure switch, Unplug it, it has only two wires behind it. The short it with a paper clip or even a short piece of stripped wire. Tape it up nicely so no dirt and water gets into in case you want to plug it back in the future .

You'll also find the description, location and picture in your RAVE manual, so look it up there.

 

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@desertdude aren't you showing him the cover up of the situation at hand instead of fixing the problem by directing the a/c fans... tanks do get bad if its old or aftermarket ones its pretty common get your cooling system diagnosed properly it could be something as simple as a radiator cap or thermostat 

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That was just an additional tip for better AC performance. Nothing to do with the problem at hand. 

That was covered in the first part of my post.

 

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