2011 LR4 HSE Coolant Leak Help

Hi,

I'm new to the forum, and pretty new to Land Rovers in general. I'm trying to resurrect our 2011 LR4 HSE. It needs a timing chain & tensioner job (and 160K standard maintenance items), but has also recently developed a coolant leak. It comes and goes where some days it doesn't leak at all. Other days I'll find 1/8 cup of coolant under it, roughly under the driver's seat. Always after it's been run. When sitting idle, it can take days for anything to leak out, and even then, it's a capful of coolant - nothing much, but always very pink / fresh.

Crawling under it, the best I can see is it's coming from somewhere in the vicinity of the front axle, near the driver's side wheel. Looking from the outside, it's roughly in line with the brake caliper, and seems like maybe it's somewhere up near a pully/belt in that area.

Could this be a water pump failing? My girlfriend needed to add some coolant while I was out of town and didn't know the coolant was a concentrate and needed to be diluted, so the mix is definitely off. I'm worried it's too thick and nuked the water pump by making it work too hard.

I don't have a lift to be able to get it high enough to get a decent pic to help y'all.

Also, any other suggested items to repair/replace while the timing chain + tensioner are being done? Water pump? Oil restrictor plates? Camshaft profile solenoids (I have an error code for one of those). Anything else that should be done at the ~160K mark so I'm not ripping it apart again in another 5K for something I could've done while it was all apart? I've heard coolant crossover pipes are a good idea, spark plugs, etc.

I'm just hoping to have a bit of an educated guess as to what's going on, so when I take it to a mechanic I don't lose my shirt. I know rovers can get expensive to work on, especially if going to a dealership. I'm hoping to find a good 3rd party mechanic in the Bloomington, IN area if anyone has any suggestions on someone who's fair and qualified.

So far I've found this forum to be an invaluable resource, and I really appreciate everyone's input on the forum posts - including, hopefully, mine.

Any help would be much appreciated!

Cheers

Do you have skid plates on the bottom side that could be making the leak appear to come from the driver's side when it is actually somewhere else?
Until you said driver's side by the front axle it sounded just like the issue that I was having that was caused by the front crossover.

No skid plates. I'll see if I can get it jacked up a bit and get a pic to share. It's hard to describe, and I was hoping my description would give someone an 'aha' moment...

Thanks!

I had what I thought was a fluid leak in the same area. Turns out it was condensation being expelled by the air conditioning system.

BigBriDogGuy said:

I had what I thought was a fluid leak in the same area. Turns out it was condensation being expelled by the air conditioning system.

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Thank you. That's a great thing to watch for going forward. This is 100% coolant, though. Bright pink, like I just put it in the system (clean).

I thought the correct coolant for our vehicles was yellow/orange, not pink?

ftillier said:

I thought the correct coolant for our vehicles was yellow/orange, not pink?

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I don't know about the 2014+, but the V8's are all orange. Pretty sure its basically dex cool but I just bought the Land Rover ****.

That area could be the reservoir or possibly the plastic thermostat housing, also.