Thread: Discovery 3 - cranking but not turning over and other issues. Please help!

Hi Everyone!

I’m a long time creeper, first time poster on this forum. I love this forum, so I thought I’d try and see if any of you can help! I’m so perplexed with this issue and no one had been able to fix it for me. FYI I’m not really mechanically minded, but I’ve owned this Discovery for a few years now, which has given me a rudimentary understanding now.

I have a 2009 Discovery 3, SE. Petrol, Auto, 155,000km. It also has an electronic trailer brake and the big Harmon Kardon entertainment system with TVs in the back of the headrests. I thought I would add this information as I’m not sure if my issue is electronic.

I’m in desperate need of some advice. Over the past 4 weeks my truck has been in to be repaired 4 times. Sorry for the long story below but I think the history if important. Please bear with me!

It was due for a service, a couple of days before I took it in I got a call from my wife, to tell me that the truck had broken down. She had driven it to the shops, come back out and the car wouldn’t start. I jumped in my car to go and pick her up (about 15 minutes away), and by the time I got there she had got the car going. She then drove it home.

The next morning the car wouldn’t start and was apparently doing the same issue. The car would crank, but it was like it wasn’t firing. I gave it ten minutes, got out and locked the car, came back and it started fine.

A couple of days later I took it in for a service and mentioned the intermittent issue with starting. The service guy called me back later that day and said my spark plug leads look worn and he would complete the service, change the spark plug leads and the spark plugs and that should fix the problem.

I picked the car up and it seemed to be working fine. I drove it for about 15 minutes to a shop, came back about 10 minutes later and it wouldn’t start. It was doing the same thing, it was cranking but not firing, but this time when I turned the key back (sorry I can’t remember if it was just to accessories or completely off) it kept attempting to turn over for a couple of seconds. I got out, locked the car and came back ten minutes later and the car would start up fine. It was the weekend, so I couldn’t take the car back in to the service guy until Monday, I kept driving it around until one time it wouldn’t start at all, even after leaving it for half a day so I had to have it towed back to the service centre.

The service centre guy called me on Monday and said it looked like the fuel pump was burnt out. He mentioned that it looked like the connector had shorted or something and burnt through the whole thing. He ordered a new fuel pump and installed it. I picked up the car a couple of days later and it seemed to be running fine but it now HAD A NEW ISSUE. The new issue was that after driving the car for 30-40 minutes, when you try and increase speed from say 60km/hr to 80km/hr and put your foot down on the accelerator it would rev but wouldn’t increase speed, it would sometimes then jerk back into picking up speed or you would pull over and turn the car off, start it up again it would be fine. FYI it wouldn’t say ‘limp mode’ on the dash.

I took it back into the same service centre. The guy took it for a spin for 40 minutes and experienced the same problem. I asked him if he could fix it and he said he didn’t understand what was happening so I took it to another service centre.

I drove the car to the new service centre and explained the issues, the guy said it sounded like a crank angle sensor but wanted to take it for a spin and see what diagnostic codes it experienced. He mentioned that it was giving a code saying a slight issue changing gear between 2 and 3 and also something about a hose error code (sorry I can’t remember which one). He changed the crank angle sensor and I picked up the car. The car seemed to be running fine, and noticeably smoother (I think, by this time I was so paranoid about the truck breaking I could have been imagining it was smoother).

I took the car for a long drive, about 140km which took about 1.5 hours and it seems to be working fine, really smooth and everything going well. I turned the car off and came back a couple of hours later and it wouldn’t turn over again. It was experiencing the SAME STARTING ISSUE as it was initially experiencing. It would crank but wouldn’t fire. I tried to get out and lock it a few times and come back in about half hour. It still wouldn’t start so I had to get it towed back to the second service centre.

This is now the fourth time it has been in to get fixed over a couple of weeks and I feel like I’m just back at square one. I feel like no one can diagnose the problem properly and I’m starting to get very frustrating (and poor!).

Please, please any help or hints on this forum would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading my short novel!

Hi everyone

First up, thanks everyone for their help.

I wanted to give everyone an update just in case anyone has similar issues in the future. Turns out the slipping gears / over-revving issues were totally fixed by replacing the crank angle sensor.

The cranking but not starting issue was due to the electricity connector going into the fuel pump (sorry, I’m not very technical). Had a auto electrician replace the connector and all the starting issues are now fixed as well. So far anyway! I’ve only done 100kms in it and I get a good dose of anxiety every time I start it up!