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TDMP
Joined: 16 Jul 2006
Location: South Gippsland
Posts: 313
 
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Well, I've been home from crossing the Simpson Desert for a while and am finally getting the chance to update some details.
Firstly, I have to say it was great to catch up with everyone at Flinders – it is always nice to put faces and names together and also to sit around a campfire without having everyone else pay out on your choice of vehicle 
After leaving Rawnsley Park Norto and I headed off with 2 other friends of mine up the Birdsville Track and then over the French Line (east west) through the Simpson – what a great place!
Unfortunately, on the morning of our third day in the desert I came over a series of undulations a bit too fast/hard and immediately started to get a “low coolant” warning!
Quickly out of the car and I could instantly tell from the amount of coolant p***ing out that I was in real trouble . After some brief attempts to plug the hole (of unknown size) with the old egg/pepper tricks, and seeing the rate in which the water I was putting in was coming straight back out, I knew that the radiator would have to be be removed and (if possible) repaired.
I had a sat phone so tried to call LRA. I rang the number and got onto NRMA and explained to them that I was in the middle of the Simpson Desert and about 200K/M from the nearest civilisation and about 700K/m from the nearest dealer. I got some bloke who I don’t think had ever looked under a D3 bonnet before and told me he would find the workshop manual and call me back – well, I never heard from him again.
Anyway, to make the (very) long story shorter, Norto I and my 2 mates spent the next 2 hours pulling the radiator out, to discover that there was a hold in the side tank of about 20mm x 10mm – oops.
What had happened was when the car came down hard onto its stops the radiator kept travelling downwards, however the side mount, which is moulded onto the plastic side tank and is bolted to the body, stayed attached to the car – the result was that radiator and mount parted ways. As the mount is also part of the side tank – big hole left in side tank.
We’ll fortunately one of the guys with me had the clever idea of cutting off the part of the side tank that was used as the mount (after unbolting it from the body), then plastic welding the leftover part back into the same hole it had just left. Using a screw-driver heated on a gas flame this took about ˝ and hour and then we covered the repair in some instant metal just to be sure. We put the radiator back in and wired it to the car body with fencing wire, filled it with water and happily continued on over another couple of hundred sand dunes, a night at Dalhousie Hot Springs and then into Mount Dare:D
As I was aiming for a warranty claim and had not had any problems between the fix and Mt Darer, I decided to head into Alice Springs to the dealer to get it fixed 
Happy to say that in due course a new radiator arrived and the dealer replaced it for me no charge – with Land Rover ultimately approving the warranty claim.
Great trip and some great memories. Beside the radiator and some other minor overheating matters (driver  ), the D3 was superb. Cant wait to get back to that part of the world!
STT's performed much better in the sand than I expected and after doing 7,500k's came home without any damage at all.
(Also, I was lucky to “bump” into Disco3 members everywhere I went – what a great mob!!)
Plenty of pics of the repair in my gallery. Thanks to Norto for his help and Mrs Norto for the pics - I was a bit too emotional at the time to take photos.
 Tristan
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 Sun Jul 13 2008 8:05am |
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eran48
Joined: 10 Dec 2007
Location: Sydney
Posts: 87
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I'm a bit surprised that a relatively heavy part like a full radiator is (partially?) supported by a plastic part. Worse, this weakness is compounded by the fact that this same plastic support also affects the strutural integrity of the cooling system - if it breaks, then cooling system dies. Dire straits indeed - instead of a fail-safe design, it is fail-unsafe and fail-guaranteed 
It looks like this can happen to any Disco3 that comes down hard enough to hit the front suspension bump stops.
In various off-roading trips, I do occassionally hit something hard enough to cause the suspension to hit the bump stops - it is not an unusual occurance. Should I be concerned that it is just a matter of time before my radiator goes? How many big bumps can this plastic part take before it breaks?
Is this a design weakness? Maybe an extra 'L' bracket at the bottom of the radiator to provide some extra support is required?
Maybe Simon Arch can answer this - will the 4x4 Intelligence radiator guard help to alleviate this problem? Does the guard provide any support for the radiator? If it does, I'll be ordering one!
Cheers
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| Sun Jul 13 2008 9:42am |
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norto
Joined: 10 Apr 2006
Location: batemans bay
Posts: 993
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Nice to see you back on the forum
Good news about the warranty Peter
"Global Warming" The religion of the left
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| Sun Jul 13 2008 9:47am |
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DiscoStu
Joined: 09 Apr 2006
Location: Essex
Posts: 6366
 
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eran48 wrote:fail-guaranteed
And yet in 319636 posts from 4500 members, this is the only occurence...
A good emegency fix though Were any of the othe other mounting points broken? Black Betty Tunisia 1 2 3 Power by 
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| Sun Jul 13 2008 9:56am |
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catweasel
Joined: 05 May 2006
Location: LONDON
Posts: 4048
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eran48 wrote: will the 4x4 Intelligence radiator guard help to alleviate this problem? Does the guard provide any support for the radiator? If it does, I'll be ordering one!
Cheers
no, no and go for gold mate. it only covers the intercooler AFAIK.
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| Sun Jul 13 2008 2:33pm |
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10forcash
Site Sponsor
Joined: 09 Jun 2005
Location: In the naughty corner.... eligible for parole 2025
Posts: 13987
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First time i've heard of this - mine (and a few others) have had a fair few 'heavy landings' with no issues, one was heavy enough for the top of the front shock absorber to leave an inprint on the body seam 35mm above it....
good field repair though and if nothing else it proves that the D3 won't leave you stranded unless you have dealer-level diagnostic kit although if it was a Deafener / Landcruiser nothin wold have been sid 'cos this sort of repair is expected   for Freelander 2 Diesel, Discovery 3 / RR Sport TDV6 & RR Sport TDV8, Defender (TD5 & Puma) - available Now!
Vehicle modifications, preparation, training and equipment also available 
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| Sun Jul 13 2008 2:41pm |
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Neil Pettersen
Joined: 23 Nov 2007
Location: Twofers at the Coffee Club ..ummm
Posts: 517
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TDMP wrote:......I had a sat phone so tried to call LRA. I rang the number and got onto NRMA and explained to them that I was in the middle of the Simpson Desert and about 200K/M from the nearest civilisation and about 700K/m from the nearest dealer. I got some bloke who I don’t think had ever looked under a D3 bonnet before and told me he would find the workshop manual and call me back – well, I never heard from him again.....
That is utterly unacceptable
You should write to LRA and demand an apology from this b@stard ....... would anyone expect
the RFD Service to leave you out there ...... or the police,if they "wanted" you !
That guy is a total tosser for doing nothing and deserves a good kickin'. Disco3.co.uk ; We all know nothing about something
Who's lookin'
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| Sun Jul 13 2008 11:22pm |
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TDMP
Joined: 16 Jul 2006
Location: South Gippsland
Posts: 313
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nothing else was broken (other than a few clips and other plastic bit as we fumbled through whilst trying to remove them...). Also when taking the coolant bottle out I think the sensor broke as I have been getting "low coolant" warnings ever since - I'll take it up with my local dealer.
The dealer in Alice Springs says he had never seen it happen before and that Land Rover told him they had never seen it before either (BTW - thanks to AWAY for his help ).
I recon I came down hard on the stops about 3 times whilst on the French Line - not that I think I was really pushing the car beyond what I would expect it could handle. Norto recons he hit the stops more than that.
So, as no other mounts were broken - nor anything else that you would expect to see break if it was a proper "accident", and Land Rover accepted the warranty claim without question, I figure it was just one of those "one off" events
In truth, the "bush repair" was great fun  and at no time did I think that Monty would leave us stranded. The D3's "technology" never let us down - but I was a bit surprised that the radiator mount was be plastic.
On another matter, I will definitely be adding the long range tank prior to the next outback trip! Out of the 4 vehicles crossing the Simpson, my TDV6 HSE used the most fuel, followed by Norto in the TDV6 SE, then an old 2.7lt HiLux and finally with the best consumption a new 76 Series V8 diesel - mind you the difference between all 4 was only about 10 litres. In the sand you pay for the weight of the D3 in fuel!
Mind you, nothing stopped the D3s and they both (Norto and I) got up big red first go without trouble - and second go, and third, and ....
If anyone is interested I am starting a jihad against MaxxTraxx and anyone who goes through the desert with 40pound in their tyres... IMHO if you get bogged on the French Line or need to use MaxxTraxx (I did not realise they were such a #!*%*@G menace) you don’t know how to drive and should stay at home and not f**k up the track for the rest of us (rant over). Tristan
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| Sun Jul 13 2008 11:44pm |
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TDMP
Joined: 16 Jul 2006
Location: South Gippsland
Posts: 313
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Neil Pettersen wrote:
That is utterly unacceptable
You should write to LRA and demand an apology from this b@stard ....... would anyone expect
the RFD Service to leave you out there ...... or the police,if they "wanted" you !
That guy is a total tosser for doing nothing and deserves a good kickin'.
Agreed! I was just waiting for the waranty to be approved beofre I started jumping up & down. I dont expect that I would have broken anywhere near as many clips and other plastic bits if LRA had been able to guide us through the radiator removal! It will certainly cost LR when I put in a claim for all of these parts.
Also, due to the break I was required to spend 4 nights in a hotel in Alice. I had not planned to go to Alice and it certainly put a fair dent in the holiday budget. What do you think my chances are of having Land Rover meet some of these costs? Am I pushing it up hill or being a bit too demanding? Anyone had any experience in this sort of thing? Tristan
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| Sun Jul 13 2008 11:51pm |
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Desert Traveller
Joined: 06 Aug 2006
Location: South East Queensland
Posts: 298
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Tristan,
I'm with you. NOTHING  me more in the desert (or sand) than people with high tyre pressures "pig rooting" the track. This loosens the surface and starts a lot of those corragations, dips and hollows. As you commented with the correct (low) pressures the Simpson is not difficult. 06 TDV6 SE with Extras
VW Eos TDI
Previously 01 TD5 and 94 TDI
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| Sun Jul 13 2008 11:58pm |
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Rob Bruce
Joined: 18 Jun 2006
Location: Canberra
Posts: 505
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Great repair job Plastic welding is easy with some care, I alwaise take some spair plastic for this purpose, also sukerflex, silicon but only used it on other cars, Also a bottle of radiator stop leak with the other usual stuff.
Eneyway once again good work
Rob MY05 TDV6 SE, dirt colour, AT2s road, STTs fun, snorkle, roof rack, engle fridge, uhf, magellan sat, dual batt, arb bull bar, winch, & other stuff.....
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| Mon Jul 14 2008 12:31am |
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caverD3
Joined: 03 Jul 2006
Location: Sydney
Posts: 1805
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Good to see that the D3 like all good Landies can be repaired with fencing wire.  Getting there is half the fun
TDV6: Adaptive Headlights, Electronic Rear Diff.ARB Bar.Blaupunkt speakers, JVC powered Subwoofer, Removable Snorkel, Mitchell Bros Tow Hitch.
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| Mon Jul 14 2008 3:19am |
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TDMP
Joined: 16 Jul 2006
Location: South Gippsland
Posts: 313
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And I still had the cable ties in reserve!!!
 Tristan
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| Mon Jul 14 2008 4:02am |
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ianv
Joined: 20 Dec 2007
Location: Murrumbateman
Posts: 273
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Glad to hear your home safe, and now are an experienced plastic welder.
Have to admit my Disco has taken a lot of big hits without complaint but I will certainly go and have a good look at the radiator mount as I noticed one top mount is a bit lower than the other, has been for a while.
all the best
Ianv TDV6 S. Air Susp, locking Diff, Warn Winch, ARB bar, IPF lights, dual bats, G4 ladder, Frontrunner roofrack, rear wheel carrier, long range tank, Hannibal awning, 240V inverter, Cooper ST's, UHF, HF-VKS737 N3559
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| Mon Jul 14 2008 12:04pm |
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hernan1304
Joined: 28 Feb 2008
Location: Dubai
Posts: 368
 
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I've had a couple of BIG hits when cresting dunes too fast and mine seems OK (other than the alignment getting a bit out of sorts) - am currently working on my "easy does it" skills...
Were you in offroad height when this happened?
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| Mon Jul 14 2008 12:45pm |
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