Thread: 1996 Disco-1 Tdi300 not Starting - possible Spider issue?

The bypass plug is relatively cheap. Getting to the unit is PITA.

A friend with Discovery 1 had similar issue, first, key fob stopped unlocking doors, so used key. Next, a few weeks later, key did nothing, could not unlock doors with key, lights for immobilizer stayed on....no start. Got in through passenger door.

Ended up taking to auto electrician, he fixed in a few minutes, (and charged $200.00), turned out to be the immobilizer earth wire not fitted correctly and had come loose.
A simple cheap self drilling screw was used for the earth wire connection to body. cleaned and replaced connection and all was well.

Not my car, so don't actually know where this wire is, but he did say the sparky removed the panel under steering wheel.
something to check anyway.

Well, went out to start work on the car and before starting I checked whether it would lock/unlock from the key fob... to my surprise it did ... I then fixed up my hot wiring efforts from the previous day and then tried starting it and again it started. I stopped it and tried locking the car via the key fob, this too worked fine so it's like its back to normal like it was months ago...

Don't want to start spending hours and hours pulling the dash apart to get to the spider if that is not the real cause (thinking it still is though). Thinking of waiting to a full failure of the spider unit and just setup a backup plan to get it started should it do it sporadically...

I dont know if the diesel is the same, but my 97 V8 started pulling the same trick. And it would usually do it at some place like at a servo after filling up! For awhile just recycling the door locks with the remote would clear it, but about a month ago it failed completely.

It originally had a p/n YWJ500020 engine immobiliser but that had been removed and replaced with the bypass plug years ago. The fault was traced to p/n AMR6428, a green plastic ECU that is both an alarm and door lock unit used by the remote. Cannot find a replacement, so now there is no theft alarm and I have to lock the doors with the key in the drivers door lock.

Originally Posted by Robmacca

Well, went out to start work on the car and before starting I checked whether it would lock/unlock from the key fob... to my surprise it did ... I then fixed up my hot wiring efforts from the previous day and then tried starting it and again it started. I stopped it and tried locking the car via the key fob, this too worked fine so it's like its back to normal like it was months ago...

Don't want to start spending hours and hours pulling the dash apart to get to the spider if that is not the real cause (thinking it still is though). Thinking of waiting to a full failure of the spider unit and just setup a backup plan to get it started should it do it sporadically...

You are probably on the right track.
I had the same symptoms...intermittently not starting. Then it would come good for long periods then play up again. Initially i just cleaned the starter solenoid terminals and this seemed to fix it but it was just coincidental.
It was the spider-now bypassed.

Originally Posted by Old Farang

I dont know if the diesel is the same, but my 97 V8 started pulling the same trick. And it would usually do it at some place like at a servo after filling up! For awhile just recycling the door locks with the remote would clear it, but about a month ago it failed completely.

It originally had a p/n YWJ500020 engine immobiliser but that had been removed and replaced with the bypass plug years ago. The fault was traced to p/n AMR6428, a green plastic ECU that is both an alarm and door lock unit used by the remote. Cannot find a replacement, so now there is no theft alarm and I have to lock the doors with the key in the drivers door lock.

So, when it eventually failed totally what did u do to get your car home?

From what I an see in the Tdi300's is its fairly simple in getting them running - 12volts to the Fuel solenoid and then 12v to the starter solenoid to get the fire started and your off and running... For mine it only effected the supply to the starter solenoid, the 12v to the fuel solenoid remained normal

Originally Posted by edddo

You are probably on the right track.
I had the same symptoms...intermittently not starting. Then it would come good for long periods then play up again. Initially i just cleaned the starter solenoid terminals and this seemed to fix it but it was just coincidental.
It was the spider-now bypassed.

Hey Eddo... how hard is it to get to the spider? How much of the dash has to be removed?

Thinking of waiting until it totally fails and just have some backup ways to get it started should it happen again...

So, when it eventually failed totally what did u do to get your car home?

Ironically enough the last time that it happened was right in front of the garage that I use! I left it there and they removed the alarm ECU.