TD5 Defender - missing when hot?

**Grizzly_Adams** · 17th July 2006, 01:12 PM

G'day all,

A friend of mine has a 2000 model TD5 Defender 130 that we are taking up to the Cape in a couple of weeks (hopefully).

2 days before we were to go out to Queen Mary falls for a test run, the engine warning light came on in his vehicle. He took the car to M.R. auto and they couldn't find anything wrong so cleared the fault.

When we went to Queen Mary falls we didn't make it - we got out to Beaudesert and the engine warning light came on again and it started playing up. Every now when cruising he would lose power for second (the engine would not stall, just lose power). At the same time a puff of smoke would come out of the exhaust when power came back on.

We managed to get out to Boonah but had to turn around as it was steadily getting worse - to the stage that even with a 50 min detour that I had to take, I still caught them up at Shorncliffe on the way home!

Apparently it was getting so bad on the way home that he was actually losing power completely and having to coast off to the side of the road and let the engine cool down before being able to get any power again. I believe (from what he said) that it didn't matter if he turned the engine off or left it running, he still had to let it cool for 20 mins or so.

By the time he got it back to Shorncliffe it wouldn't even idle properly, coughing and spluttering quite badly. 2 days later when he went to take it to M.R. auto and the bugger of a thing started up fine with NO engine warning light and purred like a kitten. Of course M.R. auto couldn't find anything because the computer doesn't have a history - if it aint playing up when he plugs the computer in then he won't see wtf is happening.

Points to note in this saga:
1. If he put the boot down the car worked fine
2. It's hard to say it only occured when the engine was "hot" as we drove from Shorncliffe to Beaudesert (about 45mins => 1 hour through traffic) before experiencing anything, and we've since had the engine at temperature and everything appears fine... sometimes.
3. Rebooting the computer / restarting the car clears the engine warning light IF left to sit for a day. If it's less than a day it doesn't seem to clear the engine warning light.

Any ideas? I was there with Warren when he looked at it, and he was thinking fuel pump because that's about the only way it should lose power would be if it wasn't getting fuel for some reason... but he was just ballparking because he needed a place to start looking.

On the side has anyone heard of any equipment (portable hard drive / compact flash / laptop) that has been hooked up to a TD5 to record a history of what the vehicle is doing / has done? What Warren has at M.R. auto needs the car to play up when he's got it plugged in, and I'd much rather have a running / rolling history of the past few days.... and being a computer nerd I know it's not that hard to do, I'd just be surprised if L.R. thought that far ahead to have something like that available....

**Omaroo** · 17th July 2006, 01:36 PM

Have you checked for oil in the ECU harness (red plug)?

**dhumphri** · 17th July 2006, 02:58 PM

You want to pray it is not oil in harness - replacing the harness is:
1. F*%n expensive
2. An absolute pain in the ass - the lack of skin on both my hands at moment is testament to this.

When you think it cant get any worse Land Rover in the UK sent me the wrong harness. I have one of the early TD5's with the non programmable ECU and they sent me a harness to suit one of the later ones which has a different temp sensor and addtional EGR plug amongst other things.

Thank god for Ward at Graeme Coopers who has helped me get around this problem.

It does sound very much like my problem but mine was not as pronounced. One minute mine would run lovely, the next like a dog but never so bad that it would stall or fail to start, just erratic performance associated with roughness in the engine.

Daz

**Omaroo** · 17th July 2006, 03:03 PM

Daz - how much did you end up paying for just the injector harness on its own? Do you remember?

I've just been quoted $119 + GST from Purnell Land Rover here in Sydney. Didn't think that was too much... in fact a good price.

**dhumphri** · 17th July 2006, 04:31 PM

I cant quite remember mate but that sounds like a good price. They are approx 32 pound out of the UK not including shipping which would put you close to that price.
Daz

**duff** · 17th July 2006, 05:00 PM

Sorry I don't know, is MR an non factory mob. Have you gone to a LR dealer to have the computer interigated.
Not that I woud normally endorse a factory dealer

My disco logs error codes and the LR computer can display past faults. I would assume the Fender should do the same. If it does it may be worth seeing them just to get fault history.

A bloke in Cairns(Don at Subsee) has bought the LR computer

, he has shown me my discos fault code history, while he was re introducing my replacement davis computer.

johndog · 17th July 2006, 05:56 PM

Just had about a hour in bumper to bumper traffic on the lane cove rd, stop start from homebush, pulled into the Caltex for diesel (as the light had come on and the kids are worried we will stop!) filled up and as soon as the donk fired up I could tell it had a cylinder down..rough as guts and no power.I shouldn,t think dirty fuel would be the prob that soon! Was wondering if it is similar to the initial question on this thread.Knowing nothing about diesels(always had V8's) is there an injector cleaner outer type thing I can put in with the fuel to give it a go../ should I drive the thing ? oh the temp gauge reads normal. When it has cooled down I will give it another spin.Help...Thanks in anticipation....

**Grizzly_Adams** · 17th July 2006, 06:11 PM

I too am hoping it is not oil in the ECU. Shortly after he got the vehicle the gearbox went bang and it went in to the mechanics for a replacement and various rebuilds (big $$$).

I've mentioned it to him several times but after being vehemently told that it better bloody not be any problems with the ECU because of how much work the mechanic did, I backed down.

As it's not my vehicle I can't pry too much and as I'm not mechanically savvy I get the feeling my input is not welcome and generally not heeded

However as we are all going up to the Cape shortly I feel it's in all of our best interests to get the vehicles going as smoothly as possible beforehand

**one_iota** · 17th July 2006, 06:36 PM

Originally Posted by Grizzly_Adams

I too am hoping it is not oil in the ECU. Shortly after he got the vehicle the gearbox went bang and it went in to the mechanics for a replacement and various rebuilds (big $$$).

I've mentioned it to him several times but after being vehemently told that it better bloody not be any problems with the ECU because of how much work the mechanic did, I backed down.

As it's not my vehicle I can't pry too much and as I'm not mechanically savvy I get the feeling my input is not welcome and generally not heeded

However as we are all going up to the Cape shortly I feel it's in all of our best interests to get the vehicles going as smoothly as possible beforehand

You are in an unenviable position.

Am I missing something here?

This is a known issue...shouldn't the mechanic do some home work and investigation before dismissing it as a possibility?

Maybe the mechanic should join AULRO

**LandyAndy** · 17th July 2006, 07:06 PM

Hi Grizzly
The harness remove/replace is easy,I pulled mine out a while ago and sealed it with sillycum to prevent it happening to mine.Around $200 for a replacement non genuine harness if its shot.
Andrew

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