[LR4Life]

Took Darkness to my indi-shop due to a low idle I have not been able to remedy. I was told no codes were stored and that they cleaned the throttle bodies, that helped a bit with the idle. They told me my coolant was low, which is odd because I had a full-cooling system flush and re-fill several months ago. They pressure checked the cooling system and told me my head gasket was leaking, so a new saga starts. I had the "test-book" light come on and then go out after I re-started yesterday. Then this morning, I saw a few drops of coolant on the garage floor. A few questions, I am at 78K miles, (very gentle miles). I am not going to do the head gasket myself however, any ideas on what the (cost) of the parts are and typically what the labor time is to due the job? ('02 Bosch)

(1) What does the "test-book" indicate?

(2) Would a slight coolant leak give me a bad idle when warm?

(3) What other issues cause a low warm idle

 

[viperover]

Idle control valve
engine vent system partialy blocked
low fuel pressure, pump or screen filter in tank has restriction
fuel pipe kinked

 

[onetime]

Hi Just had this issue myself. Testbook/fault mate showed no codes at all tested on both, lumpy idle can cause other faults to come up such as know sensors etc but they are after the fact.
Cost me £650 at an indy, mostly labour not sure how many hours but got it back on the wednesday pm they started it on monday . compression test is the only thing that can assess this if it low the head needs to come off could be value stuck/broken/cracked etc but the head needs to come off to find that anyway so new gasket. mine was gems 97.
cheers and good luck ps make sure they do both sides if you haven't had one done already may cost more
Onetime

 

[guy]

Hi,
just a couple of thoughts.
the test book icon coming on could be coolant dropping from the heater o rings onto a sensor located just underneath.
The leaking o rings could be the reason your coolant was low,i had a similiar problem,and was stressing that the head gaskets were blown, in the end it was an air lock in the cooling system(purely from a low coolant level)
i bled the system and the problem went away.

 

[brandonscaldwell]

Hopefully it is only the head gasket and not a slipped cylinder sleeve. When you have your heads off, check and see if there are any tell-tale signs of a slipped sleeve. This is my current situation with my '99 Callaway Edition. I had the head gaskets replaced only to find out that cylinder 3 has a slipped liner (She is tore up in my shop waiting for me to take the block to the machine shop for the new top-hat cylinder sleeves to be pressed in).

-Brandon