My Discovery is a Slug

[JohnE]

Hi I am relatively new to the world of the landrover, although have owned a TDI Pajero for 14 years. We now have 2 4wds.
Our newest is a 96 Discovery TDi and its an automatic(wifes car)Its only done 95,000km
Off the mark it is realy sluggish and doesn't want to get up and go.It feels as if the gears are not working/engaging. You actually have to time intersections right otherwise you would wear a car coming past.Once it gets moving and the turbo cuts in its fine.
On a highway run it is great on the flat but start going up an incline and it starts going slower and slower. It won't keep the speed up and that is unladen.
I have changed the fuel filter, air filter and checked the trans fluid and it has made a slight improvement but nothing staggering.
It seems to be gearbox related but I am not sure.
Does anybody have any ideas??or has had a similar problem.
I live in outside Lismore in northern NSW.

[jf1056]

your car seems to be the same as mine '97 300tdi auto. these are not race cars as you have found out however mine is quite nimble and doesn't lose very much on the hills. I use 15w/40 oil changed every 5k's as well as the filter, use a Finer Filter for the air with a snorkel. All these in combo are good. I have just changed the Cam Timing belt with a gear upgrade and tensioners at 100k's. When I compared the overall lenght of new v old belt it appeared old was 'stretched' and this alone probably retarded the injecter timing. With the new belt installed and the timing correctly placed, the seat of the pants feel was an extra 15kw!!! As yours is around this mileage might be worth checking. By the way turbo won't start making boost until around 1800 / 2000rpm but excessive turbo lag could also be attributed to wastgate not allowing full pressure to form or possibly restriction in exhaust system. This probably just gives you more to think about but make sure everything is at std spec then look further to make more power.

[landrovermick]

Guys what you say is corrct, a friedn of mine who is a landrover mechanic tells me that a stretched timing belt can increase the fuel timing giving a loss of power.

http://www.aulro.com/modules.php?name=Foru...viewtopic&t=356 (http://www.aulro.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=356)

this post also discusses his ideas on changing the timing belt at 100,000 km as well as servicing the radiator.

They are not race cars, but the poor performance you havce quoted seems extraordinarily bad.

Good luck

mick

[diggers]

For what its worth ,have you cleaned the fuel sedimenter(in front of fuel tank under vehicle) 20min job or less? :roll:

[BigT]

It must be built into all 300tdi auto's, if you think it's bad off the mark
try it with the AC on, you will think its a rocket with it turned OFF.
your inter cooler might need cleaning out as well,as they collect a bit of oil over time,I am having mine done in the next fortnight,so i'll let you know if it makes a difference.my disco has 194000 k's on the clock.

[jf1056]

I like the potential of cleaning the intercooller, the original is rather small to start with so if the heat exchange efficiency is compromised by oil/slodge build up in such a small area, then this has potential to make power. I also see that in the Land Rover Owner International magazine that intercoollers that replace the original with a full radiater size that goes across the front are popular in the UK and they are claiming upto 20kw over standard. Enquiries in Aus are proving very expensive at $1000 plus!! I think a clean will be a good starting point.
Anyone else got any ideas on tweeking the 300tdi for more grunt?????

[diggers]

Yeah, I cleaned my intercooler out a couple of weeks ago myself,but didnt have your probs to start with,just did it as per service schedule.My truck has just turned over 80,000K since new.

[jf1056]

after cleaning the intercooler, did it make any difference to power overall, was it quicker off the mark? how much sludge did you get out after 80k's? what did you use to clean it? Where were you on the night of the 12th? is this light too bright?
Bad joke, but I am sure that the after cleaning effects would make good reading.

[JohnE]

It is interesting to see the lack of power is reasonably common.
For those of you with the varying suggestions, the timing belt was replaced by the previous owner at 75,000 km(according to the log/service book) funnily enough it was here in Lismore.(I bought it in Sydney)
I know you should never compare cars or engines, but our pajero has a 2.5 T/diesel in it as well, even when towing a trailer and laden it performs better than the discovery, it even will spin the wheels where the disco is flat out pulling up a hill in one of my paddocks with a large load on board(found this out the other day) low range made it move though.
I know Pajero engines backwards and what idiosyncrasies they have. Based on all your advice I think I'll start from the back, fuel sedimenter and work my way forward then get the timing checked and so on.
Many thanks for the suggestions and help , I'll let you know how I fare.

je

[diggers]

In reply to jf1056's questions!
I flushed the intercooler out with petrol and throughly blew it dry with an air hose to get all the petrol fumes out. not much gunk came out about probably a teaspoon,remember i didn't have sluggish probs.However i did notice an increase in power after i replaced the fuel filter(last change was 40k)at the same time fitted a CAV unit with glass bowl, i shall now change filter more frequently, about 10K or less,as filter will now only cost $6-7 each time.
Also cleaned fuel sedimenter but again hardly worth mentioning any gunk. style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif

[JohnE]

Fellas, I still haven't cleaned out the fuel sedimenter. Diggers was kind enough to remind me of a problem if the tank was full(it was). But what I did do was undo the drain screw at the base of the sedimenter and a drip of fuel came out I then screwed it back on, and found the screw had not been screwed in all the way in the first place. Now the beast is not lagging on hills and is actually keeping a reasonable pace.
I'll still check out the rest of the system.
I suspect it was sucking air when under load and not getting enough fuel to make it go.

john

[Phoenix]

Typical landrover, a loose screw or wire style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif

Glad to hear that you have found some / all of the problem, I can see how lack of fuel would slow the car down :roll:

Good to hear that it is an improvement style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif

[bigbugga]

Normally always the easiet fix, but the hardest one to find

[bazzle]

I had a 300tdi for 244,000ks.
I also drove a few other during that time and spoke to many owners.
It is Normal, for the 300 to pull away slowly initiailly, (esp when pulling into traffic with car bearing down feeling)
Cleaning or increasing the intercooler size will not help initial pullaway.
I cleaned my intercooler a couple of times. Yes there was a little bit of oil in it but it also didnt affect highway performance. (oil in there is also normal)

What did improve take off a bit was to have the no boost setting changed on the starwheel in the aneroid housing so more fuel comes in off boost.

This didnt make it a rocket but helped abit. The aircon always held it back so I made a switch on the throttle that turned air off under full throttle.

Bazzle style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif

[landrovermick]

Bazzle - WELCOME

mate take a look at New members intros and tell us about yourself

welcome again

mick

[sunliner]

I have a 1993 3.5 tlr discovery and mine recently as 5 days ago I went to Adelaide in the discovery and when i started to go up the Adelaide hills this thing just died in the a.. I have only had the landy for about two weeks and i am not very happy with thew performance so far. I previous to the trip changed the air/fuel filters put new plug leads checked the timing and all seemed ok but this thing allways feels like it has a sluggish gearbox and its automatic by the way . I took the plugs out and found they were a bit sooted up and cleaned them but it did not make any difference.I had a thought that the auto fluid filter might be blocked and not letting enough fluid through the filter effecting the pressures in the transmission but haven&#96;t serviced it as yet .fuel ecconomy on the trip equated to about 350 - 400 on 3/4 tank of petrol even with the problem i mentioned before any one got any ideas on this one or is this a common problem with the discovery(I drive a semitrailer and this pulls better) . some help on this matter would be appreciated by anyone (Not happy jan) If anyone has an idea on this problem you can also email me at ( sunliner@bigpond.net.au ) Bruno Schneider

[incisor]

Hi and welcome to AULRO

the miles per gallon is about right for the model so it really shouldnt be timing, or mixture or slipping auto.

how many miles on the clock?

many disco's of that vintage wear in the camshaft and the result is lack of get up and go even tho every thing else seems okay.

a good mechanic with a vacuum gauge should be able to diagnose whether it is camshaft or not, i imagine.

many people replace the camshaft with the 3.9 ltr model as it gives the 3.5 quite a lift.

another thing to look at may be fuel pressure or worn injectors.

hope it all works out for you.

[Pedro_The_Swift]

Incisor is right up to a point,, (cue mental image) 8O
A good physical by someone reputable is probably in order,
then its a matter of physics. 2.5t pulled by 3500'ccs is never gunna be a rocket, dont let it labour, if it falls below 2500-2600rpm kick it hard, but why am I telling a pro how to shuffle gears? :roll:
These V8's will happily sit on 3 grand all day,
just sit back and watch the scenery ( and fuel guage) go by.
8)

[shaunp]

TDI's are not quick until they come on boost. The intercooler should be cleaned internally every 60k km or so. Once the cooler is clean you need to ensure the blower is making the right boost. Fit a t piece in the hose to the waste gate, it should make 11-14lb or so under load . You can tweak some turbo lag out by adjusting the smoke valve in the top of the pump a bit.