I’ve had the car a little over a year only 53000 miles on it. Never gave me issues until 2 days ago when I was driving to work in the morning. I moved from New York to Texas 3 months ago and 3 weeks ago I had filled up on coolant because the message came on. Fast forward to 2 days ago, I’m at the light getting ready to pull-up to work and the message pops up. Not even a minute later the car starts letting out white smoke from the engine. I parked it and let it sit for a couple of hours where it still smoked for a bit till it finally cooled down. Refilled on coolant hoping I could drive it to the dealership myself but the problem came back a mile into me driving. Ended up being a leak that got way worse and now the engines knocking with the gasket blown. I’m wondering if anyone can give me some advice. I’m gotta get rid of the car but I was wondering if I’m better off trying to sell it or just junk it. I don’t wanna just part it out because I’d like to get rid of the car as soon as possible.

 

From your story, it looks like you drove the car too far after the low coolant warning, so the engine had no coolant in it, overheated and warped the heads and the block, and the head gasket blew. If this is the case, the engine is scrap, and the only cure is another engine. There are shops around specialising in European cars that could find another engine with good providence and fit it. This will not be cheap. Other than this it's sell it on for parts.

 

For every 10 gasoline fill ups, I lift the hood (bonnet) to check everything on the engine bay. I am very particular about fluid levels especially coolant and brake fluid. If I get a message low in coolant or low in brake fluid, I stop & turn off ignition immediately. I will always suspect there is a leak because the last time I knew the fluid levels are on MAX. It's time for me to call the tow truck.
Why give up so easily? Have you tried someone to look at it, maybe there is still hope to fix the car? A mechanic is just like a Doctor, you should always get for a second or even 3rd opinion if you want to keep the car.

 

Yes it's a sad story and we have seen it many times.
Again we must understand that you CAN NOT run these cars hot!!!

Stop immediately regardless of where you are. DO NOT drive it anymore! Have it flat bedded to a repair shop.

Sorry to hear your problems and your best bet is to get rid of the car.
.
.
.

 

I think one of the main culprit why these leaks have gone unnoticeable is because of that plastic undertray or undercarriage cover. Back in the day, you'll immediately notice leaks coming out from the car whether it's a coolant, or engine oil or transmission oil or even brake fluid when you drive off the driveway. Now the leaks are being captured by the tray. So, you don't even know that your car's fluids are already empty until it is too late. I would rather do the traditional way of changing oil rather than using an extractor. At least I have a visual knowledge of what's the current status underneath my car.

 

For a 10 yr old car, for preventive maintenance, wonder how much it cost in parts & labor to just totally replace radiator...?

 

I suspect that the cause of the leak is not the radiator but one of the several plastic pipes carrying coolant from the engine block to other components, like the turbo. These unfortunately tend to develop splits which open as the engine warms and coolant pressure increases, and then contract and temporarily seal when the engine is cool. That makes it hard to spot that you've got a leak at all.
A number of owners have replaced these plastic pipes with metal ones as preventative maintenance and I think JLR are now fitting metal pipes on current builds.
It's remiss of JLR not to have spotted this issue during prototype testing of the engine, and not to have instigated a recall to remedy the issue on earlier cars.

 

Does anyone sell these metal pipes as a set?

I did the same thing in a Bentley, replace plastic vacuum lines with copper brake line. Unbelievable how bad of an idea plastic might be for such a thing, but there it is.

 

I'm always intrigued by the motivation in posts like this. Sometimes it's looking for a resolution but almost always it's just venting or a thinly concealed search for a buyer. In this case, the OP Perer25, who is not even considering repair options, logged out 15 minutes after posting and has not been back since.

Clearly not interested in knowing why it happened or how to avoid such a disaster in future. That discussion is better held in a thread on OVERHEATING because the valuable advice is wasted here.

THREAD CLOSED

Graham