What happened to your Discovery 2 today?

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Originally Posted by Eevo

i may have fried the ecu and engine loom.
not only did the smoke get out, there were flames too

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Eevo

so ive got my main battery and 2 aux batteries separated by an isolation switch
something had been bringing down the batteries voltagewise, so i wanted to isolated the batteries to see if it was one battery that had gone bad and was pulling the other down.

i rang the manufacturer, explained my problem and agreed on my course of action. to deactivate the switch and isolate the batteries, all thats required is to remove the earth/ground wire from it.
the bolt for the earth is underneath the unit, so i picked up the unit a few cm's. something sparked, i dropped the unit, something sparked again, the elec fans turned on and the smoke came out. i went to go get a spanner to disconnect the negative from the battery as i came back, there was more smoke and flames coming from the engine loom. the wiring was live and melting/shorting in front of me.

my firefighter training kicked in and i poured water on the electrical fire. with the flames out, i disconnected the negative from both the main battery and the aux battery.


im guessing the isolator shorted or an unwanted feed though somewhere. i really cant understand how this happened.

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Originally Posted by Eevo

so i've had a bit more of a look.
cant find any shorts or anything out of place.
cant find any blown fuses either
so at least that tells me which side of the fuse the short was

i noticed that elec fan can on during the event. these should only come on if the ignition is on. didnt notice any other ignition items on, so i think the short is in the fan circuit.


recovery plan.

remove isolator, go to single battery system for now. remove loom and ecu, rewiring fans, rewire a few other things. hard to tell what is what sometimes.
get engine running again
reintroduce isolator and second battery system.

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an update.


found some flash marks on the side of the ecu
on the side of the isolator, there are 2 metal bolts which you hook up the battery to. These bolts are live.
i must of let one of the bolts touch the metal case of the ecu when i picked the isolator up.
they are only a cm's apart
doing that created a circuit on the earth. ecu earth cable only rated for small current, so it melted. there are no fuses on earthing.

i had a chat to tim from traxide. the isolator is supplied with a cover for the bolts.
so the person who did he install didnt put the cover over the live bolts. very disappointing that something so simple wasn't done.

Checked the camshaft timing on my 2002 EU3 TD5 auto.
***** of a job as the gold links were not at No1 TDC. However there is a groove there.

TIPS Take off the inspection port under the bellhousing and you can see when the channel is coming around as opposed to the holes. You can turn the last little bit to put in the timing pin with a big screwdriver into the ring gear. Note to turn clockwise as if you were at the front of the engine.
My camshaft timing was perfect which was a little disappointing after all that work.LOL

I thought maybe I could pick up a little power and decrease EGTs if it was retarded.

Yesterday I fired up the Nanocom for the first time for about a year. No faults.
In the 4 years since I have owned the D2 I have only had 1fault and that was the RH rear ABS sensor connector which I cleaned and it never returned. I have never had an engine fault.

Inlet air temp cruising at 70Kmh was 31C on a 25C day. So the Serck intercooler is working well.

I get a bit of shunt on cold mornings when locked up in 3 after overriding which I guess may be from too cold air into the motor. That's the only bad side effect. Have no noticed no real increase in engine temp from the extra restriction to the radiator.

Cylinder balances were interesting at 70% zero 25% 1 and 5% 2. This is much better than before I did the washers , when they were around 2-3 most of the time.

My cheapo temp gauge which is dry onto the bolt of the radiator hose housing is reading mainly within 1C of the Nanocom reading of the temperature sensor which is pretty good. I have covered it with a big blob of Blutac to insulate it from the air.
Regards Philip A
BTW I checked my Oil separator today. It was one I bought from Ebay that is small enough to fit behind the air filter on my D2. It looks very similar (identical) to the one sold as Flashlube. Anyway I drained about a tablespoon full of the dirtiest black **** out of it . I checked the gauze filter and it was clear and the outlet to the inlet manifold was dry. So it looks successful.

I went to town today and my alternator is playing Silly Buggers( the battery light came on) . It drops down to 11.4-11.7v But when I rev the engine it comes good 13.5-13.9v.
I am thinking that the brushes are worn down and need replacing.
Can I buy the brushes to replace the old ones or is it a case of having to renew the entire alternator?

Incorrect post assumed TD5 and poster has v8.

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Originally Posted by trout1105

Can I buy the brushes to replace the old ones or is it a case of having to renew the entire alternator?

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I'm 99.9% sure the V8 runs the same regulator/brush box as my W124 Merc. I bought some spares from Latvia as they were 1/2 the price of Australian sourced ones. My local auto sparkie told me they weren't replaceable but I soon proved him wrong.

Alternator brushes, D2 V8

BOSCH Alternator Carbon Brush SET 1127014028 | eBay

A minor thing but,
the squirty thing that puts water on the windscreen had the pointy thing under the bonnet that the pipe thing goes on snapped off.

So, today in the mail a new squirty thing arrived & I fitted it after work.

I now have 2 working squirty things so I can use the back & forth rubbery things to clean the glass doovey.

I really hate all the Land Rover technical terms we have to use![bigwhistle]

Jonesfam

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Originally Posted by PhilipA

Hmm, It's not that I don't trust Auto transmission shops but If I bought along my $95 for 4 litres Transmax Z how could I be sure that they used same to flush the transmission ? Ditto Lifeguard 6. Consider the recent post about Auto problems with a D3.

I had the situation a couple of years ago where I put my car in for a reseal of the LT230, the place claimed the auto fluid was low and topped with Dex3 thus diluting my hard won high percentage of Transmax Z. One would think they could tell the difference between red and green. And you wouldn't know until something went wrong or next time you checked the level.

I would rather DIY.
Regards Philip A

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The reason you use the machine is a guaranteed exchange of fluid - you would be bringing more than 4 litres for a proper full flush....

The machine is then hooked to the source fluid, pumps it in and the displaced fluid goes into a receiver tank. You could watch this being connected...

Once it’s running like clean new fluid you stop the machine, disconnect the machine, reconnect the lines and off you go...

With a completely clean load of ATF on board.


I’m buying one of these machines for my workshop - they’re only $400 USD + shipping. [emoji41]

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Originally Posted by bee utey

I'm 99.9% sure the V8 runs the same regulator/brush box as my W124 Merc. I bought some spares from Latvia as they were 1/2 the price of Australian sourced ones. My local auto sparkie told me they weren't replaceable but I soon proved him wrong.

Alternator brushes, D2 V8

BOSCH Alternator Carbon Brush SET 1127014028 | eBay

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Thanks for the "Heads Up" on the brushes, I have ordered a couple of sets in case I stuff one up and at less than $10 a set why wouldn't I.
I haven't got any trips planned for a couple of months so I have plenty of time to fix the alternator problem with my hands instead of using my wallet [thumbsupbig]

Another question [biggrin]
Is it possible to change out the regulator with the alternator still in place?

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Originally Posted by Tombie

The reason you use the machine is a guaranteed exchange of fluid - you would be bringing more than 4 litres for a proper full flush....

The machine is then hooked to the source fluid, pumps it in and the displaced fluid goes into a receiver tank. You could watch this being connected...

Once it’s running like clean new fluid you stop the machine, disconnect the machine, reconnect the lines and off you go...

With a completely clean load of ATF on board.


I’m buying one of these machines for my workshop - they’re only $400 USD + shipping. [emoji41]

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Curious. How much ATF to do this sort of change?