Land Rover Repair: Bleeding the fuel system on my 95 Discovery Tdi, land rover discovery, upper radiator hose

Question
Hi John,
   I need to bleed the fuel system on my 95 Tdi discovery. I have looked in the 'haynes land rover discovery manual' and the description there is very vague. Please could you give me some advice on it or could you give me step by step instructions on how to bleed the system.

Thanks in advance

Simon


Answer
Hi Simon,

This past summer, I had to replace my radiator.  Here's what I did to bleed my system:

Air rises to the top of the cooling system and gets trapped, causing the cooling system to vapor lock. If the radiator is made the HIGHER point in the system, the air will escape into the radiator where it will be vented out through the radiator cap or the overflow system.

To vent a system in this method, raise the Disco so that the radiator is higher than the reservoir and engine. You can do this through jack-stands, ramps, by parking with the nose of the Disco pointing up a hill. Don't be extreme, just enough to allow air to move forward and up.

You'll need to let the Disco warm up so that the thermostat opens for the system to vent in this method. Never open the cooling system when hot or you could end up with a hot shower of antifreeze. Let the car warm up from cold with the radiator cap removed. You may get some spillage while the coolant expands and the air bubbles out. Be careful as this coolant will be hot.

Allow the engine to run, with the heater on (fan can be off or on low) until the thermostat opens and all the air is allowed to purge. Once the thermostat opens you will see the coolant level inside the radiator bubble and drop. Continue to add antifreeze to maintain fluid level.

Again be careful as the coolant and any steam released by the system will be hot. Once the upper radiator hose becomes hot to the touch and no further air issues from the system carefully replace the radiator cap and ensure the overflow bottle does not run empty.

Continue to allow the Disco to run and allow the temperature to stabilize. If you don't have a temperature gauge, allow your Disco to run until the fan cycles on and off at least once.

During this time ensure there are no leaks from the system and that the upper radiator hose gets hot to the touch (especially close to the radiator). If not then allow the system to cool, and repeat the steps above to purge any remaining air.

If you are not comfortable leaving the radiator cap off during warm-up then you can accomplish the same thing by leaving the radiator cap on and allowing the car to cool down. REPEAT the above instructions SEVERAL times, allowing the engine to cool down between each cycle, making sure the overflow bottle is maintained at the proper level. The heating and cooling cycle should push the air out through the overflow bottle and then suck coolant in to replace the air when the engine cools. The car must remain inclined for the whole procedure.

Simon, this worked for my '95 Disco, it should work for your '95 Tdi.  If you don't want to elevate the nose of your Disco, do the above without ramps etc.  It may take more time but it should work just the same....eventually...

Best of luck,

JohnMc