Thread: td5 engine life

G'day Scarry;

I don't own a TD5 but would like to be a proud owner of one very soon.

as Far as I know the problems that exist with Td5's are the Plastic Head dowls Failing and the oli in wiring loom,,

There was a Thread running here not that long ago and has Truckloads of useful info init , read this thread.

300tdi vs td5

The issues tend to be with the TD5's that have been overheated somehow.

From what i've read in that thread simon , a lot of the isses with TD5's can be avoided Just thru regular servicing ,for eg the oil in the wiring harness , AFAIK the wiring harness replacement intervals are about the same time as a Tdi timing belt , so every 80,000K , and they are a couple of hundred ea it's not a big price to ask for replacement of the wiring harness if it means it avoids you getting stranded somewhere, also there are other things like Regular Cleaning of MAF sensors.

lots of problems come from lack of knowlodge, ignoring the warning signs, poor maintenance and plain old dumb ass mechanics who should be suspeneded by their joy deparments from thier hoists and beaten with user manuals (works better if you print them hitting people with rave CD's is hardly an effective influence unless your playing them CDs from a Rave which might be against the geneva convention)

the biggies that keep coming up are

1. oil in the harness that makes it run like a bit of a pig Theres not much you can do other than replace the harness with one thats been sealed up properly and wait for it to happen again, think of it as the td5s answer to"replace the timing belt every 80K Km" for a TDI
2. oil getting on sensors in the inlet system that makes the ECU think the boost is off. Pay attention to the engine and fix cause of the oil getting in there be it from the turbo or excess coming out the crank case vent.
3. oil leaks from the filters or the turbo return lines. thats just bad mechanicing some backyard mechs will leave the turbo to sit on the return pipe when they do work on the exhaust this damages the line and its flanges speaking of exhausts
4. exhuast manifold/turbo flange leaks, partly poor maintenance partly poor design. if you get this one you'll know it from the whistles pull the manifold, new gasksts, reskim the faces, remove some webbing and then elongate the wholes and refit with self centering washers
5. fuel leaking past the injectors, not all that common and fairly easy to fix just a case of pulling the injectos and replacing the seals
6. fuel leaking past the fuel pressure regulator, almost common place 3 bolts and about 1hr with a new kit or reg fixes it
7. EGR fouling open, it'll happen and you have 3 choices clean it up, clean it up and disable it or remove it
8. collapsing intercooler hoses, just a maintenance thing replace them with silicone and forget it (do the EGR while your at it)
9. slight leaks on the cooling system joints, this is mainly at the hoses, pay immediate attention to this one. If your wifes water breaks and youve just noticed a drip on the floor of your OAT from the TD5 fix the TD5 first. speaking of OAT
10. Wrong coolant. Bad for the engine maintenance thing goto the effort of doing a full chemical flush and clean out before going to OAT coolant its a maintenance issue normally
11. intank fuel pump failure, its sometime connections sometimes the relay you can do some stuff to extend the life of it but its a murphy factor as to when it lets go.
12. ABS/TC/HDC aka the 3 amigos, not really to do with the engine but common to the td5 powered rovers usually a wiring fault, a sensor thats gunked/failed or gunk in the rotor that it reads. maintenance thing in most cases
13. head failure. I havent seen one yet that I havent been comfortable calling a symptom rather than a cause. usually when push comes to shove there will be something like a clogged radiator grill or a stuck thermostat thats caused an over heat. the wrong coolant also falls into this catagory as it causes the erosion of the metal of the head from the coolant jacket side that weakens it enough to fail.
14. head slide. usually refered to as the plastic dowel fault. not really a fault of the dowls but for some reason the head bolts loose tension and the head slops around. my money is on overheating and incorrect initial tenioning combined with age or a combination of all 3 providing youre willing to chuck a head gasket and a set of bolts at it every XXX (still havent found enough of a pattern to it to put a number on it) Km its preventable If it happens and you have the steel dowels you blow out the head gasket and can damage the head from the steel dowls having no give. (of course you do damage when the plastic dowels go but its differnt)


I think thats most of the common ones I get asked about.

oh

15. belt tensioner and idler bearings but they should get 100K from new with a bit of care
16 cooling system bleed. Its a bitch get it wrong and you can hotspot the head with nasty results.
17. Evil looks from v8 owners when you pass them as they pull into servos
18, Evil looks from toyota drivers when you pass them or offer to pull them out of "trationally demotivated" situations
19. the hatred of sydney sider hug atree groups
20. trying to get into underground carparks.

That ought to cover it.

there were a few cracked or porous heads around the unit injectors, but I think theses were early production engines.
These were characterised by high oil levels (fuel dilution)

To answer your question, Land Rover say it's designed to last 300 to 350,000 miles or 550,000 to 600,000Ks

Whether they do or not, only time will tell.

Baz.

thanks everyone dave (blknight) your post was excellent.it should be read by all td5 owners.
how do you know if the egr needs repair?
also this later td5 has had only one rocker cover gasket and has no oil in the injector harness
maybe they did some changes to this model engine
the 1999 one i had need a new rocker cover every service and injector harnesses every so often
i have extended factory warranty on present vehicle so keep a very good eye on what is going on under the bonnet & elsewhere

i have done some hard work in the disco td5s i have own ed & never seen the temp guage move.you can often hear the viscous fan go on & off.
once in some heavey sand work on a 38c day i had the auto tranny high temp light come on. i did what the manual said give it a rest, & did not have any further problems

I made the cardinal sin of owning a TD5, i ran it for 2yrs on non OAT coolent

I am now paying the price of that mistake

A blown head gasket.

Baz.