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Coolant Level Warning...common?

97K views 42 replies 22 participants last post by  UtraStyle 
#1 ·
Hi All,

Yesterday I was driving and got a coolant level low indicator warning. I checked the coolant and it is indeed low (below the minimum). I looked all over the car and I don't see any sort of leak. There are no drips, sprays etc. in the engine bay, or under the car. I've never had a car need coolant without a leak. Is it common for a Land Rover to need coolant to be added after 30,000kms? It seems odd to me.

Thanks for any help!
 
#2 ·
Yes, with the heat wave lately, this is normal to top off coolant fluid.

Had to do that with my BMW last week as well.

Now if it started needing to be topped off more than a month, then I'd worry...
 
#5 ·
My 2018 Sport has under 9K miles and the low coolant light came on today. I was about 5 mins. away from home. I checked the level when the car cooled down, the fluid is below the minimum level line. I'll need to get it towed to the dealer and try to arrange for a loaner car for the weekend. This is very frustrating to have non-normal issue already in a car that is 7 months old.
 
#8 ·
6 times in the shop in 10 months for coolant issues

I purchased a 2018 Discovery Sport December of last year (2018). Within the first week the coolant light came on. I called my sales man and he had me swing by. The service manager added water to make the sensor turn off. A few weeks later the light came on again. I took it back and they again added water and told me "evaporation was normal". A few more weeks goes by and the light turns on again! I book an official service appointment and they kept it for a few days only to tell me they found no issues. Another month goes by and the light comes on again. They keep it a few days again then say nothing was found, but that they put dye in the coolant to see if there is a leak they couldn't detect. I think this was a bunch of bull because coolant is already colored. Of course a few weeks later the light comes on again, so I took it to a different dealership. They keep it three days again and said they found a small leak. Everything went great for about 5 months when the light came on again. I took it to the last dealer and they again said there was no problem found, it's been hot and I just need to add water. In my 24 years of driving/owning cars I have NEVER had to add coolant to a car. They tried to tell me that the sensor is in a bad location and that driving on a hill could set off the sensor. That's CRAP! I live in Columbus Ohio, not the hills of West Virginia and even if I did live in the hills I still don't think the sensor should be set off every few months. This is not normal.
 
#9 ·
AWeiss seems very lucky. In the 55 years I have been driving I have had to add coolant to everyone of my cars. Only a very few because of leaks. If work is done on the coolant system it sometimes takes weeks to have all the air trapped in the system work it's way out. On the Disco after over a year of driving the low water light came on and I added maybe 200cc of water and nothing in the last 3 years.



Not sure about the Hills of West Virginia but I never have problems with the sensor in the Rockies and the dealer probably is wrong there.
 
#10 ·
It looks like electronic system of Land Rover Discovery Sport is very poor designed. I got 2015 Land Rover Discovery Sport and engine maintenance light constantly coming up , took it 6 times to garage and no one knows what it is? Garage replaced 3 parts and the same problem.
 
#22 ·
I am having the same engine light issue with my discovery 2015 too. Also coolant level warning since a week now. Where you able to get rid of the engine light? I brought the car to Canadian tire for oil change , they said coolant level was not low. I don't know if they are false warnings
 
#11 ·
Hi all,

I am having the same issue. 2017 Disco sport with 24k miles. Last month when starting my car there was an explosion under the hood and green liquid dripping from the front of the engine...towed to dealer...was told by LR it was a coolant leak and the hose was replaced, leak resolved. Yesterday the low coolant light came back on. Taking it back to the dealer. Any theories on what exactly is the issue with this model? Someone mentioned a water pump leaking, is this the culprit????....I will say the recommendation by LR to top off coolant is not acceptable.
 
#12 ·
If the hose ruptured it is not likely the water pump is the problem. The solution from Land Rover to add more coolant after the air bubbles have worked their way out of all the crevices seems reasonable. Somebody is always mentioning things that may not be the problem with your vehicle. Add 200 cc of water and if the light comes back on, worry, or waste a day going to the dealer.


I had the thermostat in my Merc changed out and it took several weeks for all the air bubbles to escape. I had an Audi that had a special valve designed to bleed the air from the system but was the only car I have owned in over 50 years to have a bleeder valve.
 
#13 ·
Hey everyone,

My check coolant sign keeps coming up for my '16 Discovery Sport HSE.

I checked and the coolant is fine. The sign goes away after a while. Why do you think this is happening? Perhaps the weather has something to do with it? It's -15C and snowing a ton.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
 
#17 ·
Have you watched “The Car Wizard” on YouTube? He’s an independent mechanic based in Wichita, Kansas. He works on everything, from Fords to Lambos. A number of his videos explain why it costs so much to do certain maintenance/repair items. Well worth checking out. PLUS, he and his wife have a Disco Sport as their personal car.
 
#18 ·
Hello all.... I have a 2018 Disco Sport. Bought it second hand and on the first road trip, darn low coolant light came on. Definitely think there is a leak since there is a slight coolant smell when I pop the bonnet. Sounds like it is a common issue with these.
hoping it is just a hose leak. Otherwise, what a fun ride!
 
#20 ·
Hello all.... I have a 2018 Disco Sport. Bought it second hand and on the first road trip, darn low coolant light came on. Definitely think there is a leak since there is a slight coolant smell when I pop the bonnet. Sounds like it is a common issue with these.
hoping it is just a hose leak. Otherwise, what a fun ride!
Please update me on what it was when you can.
 
#19 ·
This weekend, on I-95 N, the low coolant warning message appeared for about 15 minutes and then went out. The outside temperature was reading 100 degrees and traffic was moving at between 5 and 45 mph. As soon as I got home I ran the DS out to the dealer. A mechanic poked around under the hood, added a little coolant, and pronounced it good to go. I'll be keep an eye on it. The DS is a year old with 5200 miles and annual maintenance was done about 3 weeks ago.
 
#21 ·
SO after owning my land discovery sport 2018 for literally just over a month, my low coolant light came on today. I commute 5 days a week from the Long Beach area to Beverly Hills (I work in bev hills) and I take a winding road that has hills so that possibly could be it? My car is still under warranty so I think I’ll check that out.
 
#29 · (Edited)
BTW, coolant won't easily evaporate by itself as cars are designed to seal the coolant. Any mechanics who say "it can evaporate" are all BS. It only evaporates when its sealing is faulty. Scientifically, the alert happens when 1) leaking, 2) faulty sealing, 3) faulty/sensitive sensor, 4) low temperature (contraction), 5) and some other rare problems in cooling system.

I had a few coolant level alerts on winter but it was gone after a few minutes. So it was 4) to me. (I know cars... so I closely monitored engine temp while the alert was on. If it goes up, everyone must stop the engine.)
 
#30 ·
When a car is operated on a hot day and the engine has been run for a long time pressure will build up when car is shut down. The engine block is hot and causes coolant temperature to rise as well as pressure. The "rad cap" will open to relieve the pressure and some vapour may escape and it is almost like evaporation. With newer cars the rad fan runs to help cool down the coolant after shut down.

I always let my engine run for a short time after a long highway drive, lets coolant temperature stabilize and more importantly lets the turbo cool down as well.
 
#31 ·
AFAIK, when radiator cap opens, the coolant will just flow into its reservoir thru hose. If everything is sealed properly, there won't be any evaporation in the process. It is simple law of conservation of mass. The coolant won't go anywhere, and it must be kept in the cooling system. Some very minor evaporation might happen a little bit over time because the sealing can't be always perfect. But it should be very minor.
 
#32 ·
Ahhh if you take the time to actually look at your car you will see there is not actually a rad cap on the Discovery at the radiator. The rad cap or pressure relief cap is located on the reservoir itself.so if the valve opens it is then vented to the air. Take a look and you will see the pressures are stamped on the reservoir cap.

years ago the coolant was vented into the reservoir and then sucked back into the rad as the temperature dropped. The pdf is for the Diesel but same test is used for gas.
 

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#33 · (Edited)
Ahaha, now are going pretty deep. Let's be nerdy together!

1) First of all, you brought a very right point that Disco uses expansion tank instead of overflow tank. That's why there is no radiator cap. I didn't realize that.

2) Yes, again, expansion tank cap is supposed to vent the air once it reaches to the limit. If my argument sounded like "the cooling system must be vacuum-sealed", that is my bad. It is not, it can't, and, more importantly, it shouldn't be. I just meant "properly sealed". It might explode someday if it is vacuum-sealed everywhere. The system can hold the pressure to a certain level for sure, but it needs to vent after the limit.

3) Yes, again, because the vented air contains some of evaporated coolant, we would lose some small amount of coolant. So my arguments "there won't be any evaporation in the process" and "The coolant won't go anywhere" are misleading. I want to rephrase those as "there won't be any significant evaporation in the process if the system works properly" and "The coolant won't go anywhere under normal conditions if the system works perfectly." I will explain those in the next.

4) If there is too much coolant, the expansion cap will vent the air. So we lost some of the coolant. If we repeat this process, we would lose more coolant again and again. In the end, we would reach to an 'optimal' amount of coolant naturally. In that status, the overall pressure of the system would stop at just below the maximum. It won't reach to the maximum easily now as there is less coolant to expand. This is what I meant "The coolant won't go anywhere under normal conditions if the system works perfectly.". Now the cap won't vent anything, so the law of conservation of mass persists.

5) Even though the cooling system works perfectly, under certain conditions like long/fast drive on a very hot day, you will lose the coolant anyway. However, that is something minor you can just top off coolant on 1 year/10,000miles maintenance. Less than half inch mostly. Also, very likely you won't see any alert too unless you have faulty/sensitive sensor. Most garages will do it for free if you pay for oil change service. This is what I meant by "there won't be any significant evaporation in the process if the system works properly."

6) However, if the cooling system doesn't work properly (i.e. can't cool the engine down effectively) with some reasons, the temperature will keep going up, expanding more, increasing pressure, and making the cap to be vented. Now even though you don't have enough coolant, it still expands too much due to overheating. So you will see the alert. You add more coolant. But you didn't address the cooling system issue. So you will lose coolant again and again. In the end, you will see the alert again very soon. This stupid repeating adding and losing coolant is not expected in the proper cooling system. This happens when your cooling system is out of order.

7) So, yeah, if the system works perfectly, it won't evaporate. And if the system works properly, it won't evaporate easily at least. That's why I mentioned that any mechanics who say "it can evaporate" are all BS. By accepting that, you will end up losing coolant unnecessarily, see the alert frequently, have to keep adding up more than once a year. It is better to find the root cause. That said, I do understand that it is a quite difficult, painful and time-consuming job to find a minor leakage. So lazy mechanics just give up and say "just top-off". But some experienced guys are able to identify the cause fairly quickly and give you a peace of mind.

Sorry for being nerdy. But I believe we all can learn something from this :)
 
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