Still slow to start, rough idle and now stalls does a nanocom assist fault finding?

OK, I've pulled out the ECU this morning. There's a slight trace of oil on the connector plug.

Looking around the forums and previous posts, it's apparent that one of the things people do to improve the situation is remove some of the cladding near the plug.

I'm trying to find what is best to clean up the oil in the plug, I've seen carby cleaner and someone said contact cleaner(for computers).

I need to find my last mechanics invoice. I recall he said there was oil in the loom, but not sure if the injector loom was replaced. I've pulled the plug off at the front of the engine and again I can feel and see a small amount of oil, which leads me to thinking I'll have to replace the injector loom. This is why I need to find that invoice. I can't believe that with the head off and oil found at the ECU that they didn't replace the injector loom at the same time. After all, nearly everything else was replaced at the time!

Just a quick update. It's certainly oil in the loom.

I've cleaned out the red plug and the plug at the engine. Put it all back together and it starts fine and runs smooth.

I will have to try the main loom flush at some point.

If the mechanic did replace the injector loom it could well be residual oil in the harness.
When I have had the issue on both our TD5s I have left the orange silicone gland out of the red ECU connector until it ceases to come out.
In the mean time carry a can of CO Contact cleaner in the vehicle,if you notice the idle sounds slightly off its time to give the red ECU plug a good clean.
Goodluck.
Andrew

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Originally Posted by LandyAndy

If the mechanic did replace the injector loom it could well be residual oil in the harness.
When I have had the issue on both our TD5s I have left the orange silicone gland out of the red ECU connector until it ceases to come out.
In the mean time carry a can of CO Contact cleaner in the vehicle,if you notice the idle sounds slightly off its time to give the red ECU plug a good clean.
Goodluck.
Andrew

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Thanks Andy.

I'll pull the gland out and see how it goes.

At least now I know what to keep an eye out for.

You will find there is residual oil in the harness, there is a modified harness you can buy, which uses some kind of epoxy to fill the void in the injector harness at the point the harness exits the injector cover. You will need to pull the red plug each service & clean it, until oil no longer appears. The other alternative is the modified harness & new loom, bit exy though. Bob

I confirmed today that the injector loom (or is this the harness) was replaced while the head was off.

Considering I got about 3000km's since the injector loom was replaced to see oil at the ECU, I'm going to have to check things a little more often.

Idling is fine at the moment, but starting is proving slow still. I find I have to pump the accelerator while turning the engine over. Is this normal, or should starting have returned to normal with the clean up?

Should I look inside the ECU for oil?

Should I bite the bullet and take it back to the mechanic and let them check things out?

The slow starting is a bit of a worry still. It's not as bad as it was before though.

Would a nanocom likely show up any issues? I'd happily forego the mechanic and buy a nanocom with the money if it makes sense to do so (it's on the cards to buy one anyway).

Peter.

I've given up on this one and going to take it back to the mechanics, it's now just stalling.

Spoke to the guy this morning booked it in for Friday.

On the way home from work tonight it stalled at the lights and wouldn't start, got to love holding up traffic. I was lucky and on a fairly steep hill, so when enough people were clear of me I was able to roll back down the hill and up and over the gutter to the nature strip.

It eventually started again so I was able to get home.

I pulled the ECU out to check the plug and it was clear and this time pulled the plug off at the engine and stuck my fingers into the plug on the engine itself and found traces of oil, and that the pins in there are sharp!!!!

So if the injector loom/harness was replaced, why would there be oil there??????

Sigh. I guess I'll leave it to the expert to tell me that.

I'm hoping to get some reliability with this car... so far I find I'm just driving with a sense of panic the damn thing is going to fail.. it's not fun. :(

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Originally Posted by plaven

I
I pulled the ECU out to check the plug and it was clear and this time pulled the plug off at the engine and stuck my fingers into the plug on the engine itself and found traces of oil, and that the pins in there are sharp!!!!

So if the injector loom/harness was replaced, why would there be oil there??????

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The injector harness is just the portion of the loom that runs under the cam cover, and is directly exposed to oil. WHen you get "the oil in harness" issue the oil wicks through the injector harness plug and along the main engine harness to the ECU.

Replacing the injector harness should stop more oil wicking into the main harness but unless the main harness is pulled out and washed out with something like isopropyl alcohol you'll have oil continue to wick up to the ECU plug. It should progressively reduce but you need to keep checking it and cleaning out the ECU plug.

A diagnostic tool will let you see what codes are being logged, and give you information about how the sensors are performing. If you are looking for a something to read and reset the codes and own either a iPad or android tablet, I'd suggest having a look at the Launch X431 iDiag - http://www.aulro.com/afvb/electronic...431-idiag.html . If you can live without the ability to change BCU settings it's a fantastic bit of gear//software for diagnostics and significantly lower cost of entry than buying a Nanocom. The interface is around $120 shipped, and a 12 month unlock for Land Rover (ie all LR's from 1996 -> 2011) is $66US.

cheers
Paul

Hasn't it been suggested that you can nip a hole at a low point in the harness shroud for the oil to run out?
Of course, this leaves a hole in the protection on the harness....

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Originally Posted by Disco Muppet

Hasn't it been suggested that you can nip a hole at a low point in the harness shroud for the oil to run out?
Of course, this leaves a hole in the protection on the harness....

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I've read this too, but I'm not exactly sure how it's meant to help if the oil is migrating up the wire strands.