Thread: Help please - Defender won't start

Righto lets play detective.

If it was running before you did the lights, start there. where did you run the power from the lights from. ? have you bumped the spade terminal for the power wire / solenoid wire on the starter motor. Have you checked all the fuses, in the battery box ( defender) and under the dash behind the panel. The auto gear box should not be an issue unless you were playing with it. Did you play around with the ignition key when you removed the dash likewise check you have not knocked loose a spade terminal off the switch. Check what is easiest before you start pulling things apart. Loose terminal on starter is my best guess as i have had this issue with my defender. also whoever converted you auto should have placed a neutral start relay in. mines in the battery box make sure you have not lost a wire off the relay.

My money is the spade connector in the top of the starter motor.

Had it with a 300tdi before , everything works fine but nothing when you turn the key to start.

Took if the spade connector and cleaned it up and put it back on and worked fine. Had the same problem as you , I moved the car and then went to move it again and nothing.

Originally Posted by Reads90

My money is the spade connector in the top of the starter motor.

Had it with a 300tdi before , everything works fine but nothing when you turn the key to start.

Took if the spade connector and cleaned it up and put it back on and worked fine. Had the same problem as you , I moved the car and then went to move it again and nothing.

Agree with this, i ended up soldering the wire to that terminal and putting the joiner further down the wire where i didnt get my hands burnt. My 300 tdi 110 is also an auto and the selector switch[on the auto box] failed on mine leaving me with your situation, hard to find switch i bodged the loom with a push button starter that worked when in gear until i could get a new correct switch

Hi folks,

Thanks for the suggestions.
Didn't have to run any wires, just replaced Indicators with LED equivalents & changed the indicator relay (necessary when changing indicators to LED).

All lights working, starter not. Had to pull out my center console in order to get to the indicator relay. Doesn't help to find a loose spade connector lying with the fuses but don't know if that was like that before it where it came from.

Reseated all fuses already, haven't tried replacing them

ok after some sterling detective work by my friend Wallaby Ted, we managed to find the issue.

Some ultra-smart mechanic had earthed the starter relay to the back of the bolt that holds the fuse panel in (not the one on the console, another metal bracket that the fuses inside are all connected to).

So when I unbolted the fuse panel to change the indicator relay, the bolt fell off that was holding the earthing wire on.. so no kick to the starter, even though everything looked fine.

Bugger of a thing to find. Not impressed with the mechanic, whichever one it was. That particular earthing wire has now been moved to another location.

Just if anyone was interested it was a relay that had been put it seems for making sure the auto gearbox was in neutral as Bazzle218 suggested. As Grizzly_Adams said the earth side of that relay was earthed via the bolt that holds the fuse assembly in place.

Once moved to another earth point all worked again.

Richard

My starter went like that, one time it worked, then it didn't, no warning. Bought a new one and away I went again. Still have not pulled the old one apart but from all reports on here when it happened it would have been the starter solenoid. Must get to rebuilding that starter