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Home > Puma (Tdci) > Purchase walk away - Coolant smell and oil leaks

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HTB

Member Since: 24 Mar 2013
Location: Surrey
Posts: 71

2012 Defender 90 Puma 2.2 HT Buckingham Blue

Purchase walk away - Coolant smell and oil leaks

I'm just looking for a replacement for my lovely 110XS Utility I sold on here last year. It looks like I'm going to have to kiss a lot of frogs before finding my next 90 XS.

I looked at a 2.4 yesterday that needed a bit of love, but appeared relatively solid. I ended up walking away and suggesting they let me know when it was fixed rather than taking the risk. Wanted to hear any thoughts..

Coolant smell
On running the heater and/or aircon, I could smell coolant in the cabin. I couldn't really smell coolant in the engine bay. No emulsification on the dip stick or Oil filler cap. No bubbles in the coolant tank with the top off. Inside floor was slightly moist but looked to be more because the mats had been washed than it being from an obvious leak. Smell went away on turning heater off.

Nearside Oil /diesel leak
Couldn't determine whether the nearside front of the engine which was covered in 'oil' had a leak from the injectors or the vacuum pump, or perhaps something more serious?

Given the coolant smell and oil leak I decided that it was took risky to purchase. My thoughts are:-

1. worst case - Blown head gasket - have asked them to do a compression test.
2. Best case - leaking heater matrix.
Seperately an injector seal leak or (and) vaccum/VCV pump leak.

Either way it seemed like a good amount of money needed to be spent. The collant/curry smell reminded me of too many old british cars I shouldn't have bought in my youth, and the risk is that the head gasket is blown and there is serious money to be spent.

Should I be too freaked out by seeing oil on the nearside side of the engine? I'm very comfortable with working in my own vehicle (I have a series 3 on the drive that I've been rebuilding).

7th Jan 2023 11:10am

Polarismd

Member Since: 13 Feb 2022
Location: Leicestershire
Posts: 62

Oil Leak

I had a similar issue.

The oil leak turned out to be a pin hole in the turbo hose. It sprayed oil on the engine...

The coolant smell went after a week or so of driving and never returned. My XS had been in storage for about six months and all cylinders compressed ok.

The last service said that the anti freeze had been replaced and only 400 or so miles had passed since being placed in storage.

Chris

7th Jan 2023 3:06pm

Co1

Member Since: 19 Aug 2018
Location: North Yorkshire
Posts: 3671

The heater matrix is a a pig to swap in a Puma. I’d have walked away at the thought of swapping one of those again!!

8th Jan 2023 5:39pm

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