Garvin wrote:

The throttle body heater units need to be assembled with non hardening/flexible (elastic) gasket jointing compound - I use Loctite MR5922. The plates are thin so the constant heat/cooling results in too much movement/warping and they eventually leak without something more ‘pliable’ than a dry gasket. Thin coat on both faces and job’s a good un.

Sounds like a simple fix, will remember that for next time it starts leaking!

Harv wrote:

https://www.sportscarcentre.ca/MGM000010K

This is it. Sports Car Centre, Edmonton. Not cheap for what it is but it’s better quality than the original. It’s too early for me to say that it will last longer but I think it’s been 2 years since I installed it with no issues.

That certainly looks like a forever fix!
I have an alloy expansion tank, may as well go for broke!

I’m hoping it’s a forever fix.

It’s interesting how the views of keeping the TBHeater vary. For the first year or so of having my Disco 2, I frequented the Discoweb forum. The general consensus there was that you should never bypass it, as several members there were sure that they experienced throttle icing after deleting it. For the last year and a half I’ve been on Landroverforums where the consensus is you should delete it as it does no good. I think with the upgraded TBH there’s no need to delete.

I don't think the TBH is strictly needed in the UK. I have experienced throttle body icing only once, in December 1979, in freezing fog, in a 'modified' car I had at the time with a mahoosive twin choke carbytooter on it! In fact it was the carb that iced up not the inlet manifold. In colder climes the TBH may well have a beneficial affect.

I have checked my records and I last replaced the TBH but with flexible gasket compound in early 2016, so 7 years ago and it's still watertight. Between 2001 and 2016 it had 3 - original and 2 replacements - so they lasted ~5 years on average before leaking. In fact probably less than 5 years as they had probably been progressively weeping/leaking for a long time before replacement.

I've experienced icing years ago on an old carb equipped car with a non-standard air filter so it didn't have the intake tube that you were supposed to position so it drew air in from next to the exhaust manifold in winter. It would start fine, idle OK, set off and die within a couple of hundred yards. Opening the bonnet and looking down the , the 'mouth' of the carb was full of ice. That would only happen when cold, but not necessarily below freezing, and damp (foggy). As the air is accelerated through the venturi, it is cooled which, if there is a lot of moisture in the air, will condense on the cold metal and freeze.

Whether or not we need it in the UK will depend on a lot of things. Yes we get cold weather (I once read that around 3 degrees would be optimum for it to happen), we also get a lot of moisture but there is less of a venturi in an injection throttle body than in a carb where the accelerated air is used to draw the fuel in from the jets in that venturi. It will also depend on how you drive the car. If you start it then run it at idle for a minute or so (while waiting for the 3 Amigos to go out, or just reversing from a driveway for instance) before setting off, there will be enough heat around it that it won't happen. Start the engine and immediately set off down the road and it is far more likely.

How did we go from ABS to throttle body heaters in one thread?

How did we go from ABS to throttle body heaters in one thread?

I accept full responsibility, sir!
I suggest a light flogging, then banishment for life!!

Look what banishment has done to you career! HA!

Very true, going from occasional contributor to part time employee almost. Not that it matters as the search function on this site works so people can still find it.

My experience with the TBH is that they will leak on the GEMS but all that is needed is a new gasket with a bit of Hylomar. I did mine about 5 years ago, didn't have a gasket so made one from gasket paper and it hasn't leaked since. However, just about every Thor I have looked at has had the tell tale crystalline deposits on it and on the rocker cover beneath it. Maybe they are more prone to leaking?