Lumpy feel and not quite right

[clifton]

Hi All

Any thoughts please.

2002 TD4 GS 90000 miles always been in the family but not always regularly serviced since 70000

When you drive at 30 in 4th gear (about 2000rpm)you can feel what can only be described as missing. You can feel it more distinctly when the vehicle is stationary and you hold the revs at 2000 rpm

In the past it has been accompanied by white smoke and a strong fuel smell but not always.

My wife thinks it is using more fuel than before but we have not proved that.

It recently passed the MOT with no comment but it's not right.

Does anyone have experience of this or any advice..

Thanks

Howard

[d4x4]

There is a pipe about 3 inch diameter which runs across the front of the engine . It rubs through on a bolt on the left hand side of the engine. Check the underside of it. It's worth a look. No dismantling needed

[FridgeFreezer]

Not just that pipe, all the turbo hoses can split. My actuator pipe (the ~6mm diameter rubber one) had rubbed through. And the EGR valve stuck, and the turbo hose split...

[Ally V8]

Those horrible BMW engines suffer badly with injector faults.These can show up as white or blue smoke,misfiring or juddering while idling etc.Luckily it usually shows up well on live data, as a rule of thumb a + or - value more than 3.5mm cubed is out of range.

[FridgeFreezer]

I'm really rather fond of my horrible BMW engine

Heard quite a few stories on here from people who've had garages replace all the "fault prone" injectors at vast cost only to find they weren't faulty at all.

[Ally V8]

I'm pleased you are happy with your TD4. I've never had the pleasure of owning one,but have rpeaired and diagnosed hundreds of them for my own customers and other garages.White smoke and misfiring are classic signs of injector misbehaviour,which as I said is easily picked up on live data displays.What is also unfortunately common is poor quality "reconditioned" injectors used as a cheap fix by many.This then leads to replacement of unecessary parts which still still dont cure the original fault...

Split boost hoses are not going to cause a misfire or white smoke,EGR valves stuck open will cause black smoke,poor fuel consumption,poor starting or in extreme cases have caused non start situations.(Cant say I have witnessed this myself though)

Ok,maybe horrible is a bit harsh,but LR's have had much better units fitted than those forced upon them by BMW. I was reminded of that this morning when an L series diesel powered FL came in with noisy VC support bearings.Even the Ford unit in FL2's seems to be doing well.

[clifton]

Thanks for the feedback, that's given me plenty to think about and investigate

To my knowledge the injectors have never been out of this engine. What kind of a fight is that likely to be?

I had read that they are not coded so whats the view on changing all 4 on the drive and have done with it.

Again thanks to all who offered advice so far.

Howard

[FridgeFreezer]

Injectors are expensive and it's very unliklely all four would go wrong at once (buy a lottery ticket if they do), I would leave them well alone and do the cheap & easy stuff like checking for split hoses etc., failing that the airflow meters can get dirty, if unplugging it makes no difference that's a good clue. Cleaning the element may work, or just fit a new AFM. If you have 5-point (yes, 5 not 6) Torx security bits to hand it's less faff to swap the sensor element than the whole AFM.

The TD4 has two* fuel pumps, if either of these is dodgy it can cause issues, my experience was the under-bonnet one dying leading to no-start (hitting it sorted that).

But as I said, start with the cheapest & easiest thing - hunting split/rubbed hoses

Ally - I guess mechanics always know everything that goes wrong with everything, if it doesn't break you don't see it. My experience over the last 100,000 miles has been positive, and I bought the car as scrap, much like the previous 1.8. In terms of "normal" cars it's probably no great shakes but in Land Rover terms the FL deserves way more love than it gets, if Defenders were as good as the FL they'd rule the world!

* Two electric, plus the injection pump.

[Ally V8]

Clifton, your original post describes what I would take as a standard TD4/6 misfire issue.There is little point in changing all 4 injectors,the one good thing about Bosch EDC live data and fault codes is that it is a very accurate guide to fault finding.(Unlike the TD5,which can be misleading at times) So if only one injector is out of tolerance on live data you would be very unlucky if a decent replacement didn't sort it.I would strongly recommend genuine Bosch exchange injectors if they are needed.The cheapest trade price I have seen recently for them is £135+Vat each.They can require slide hammer type removal,but often come out easily.Just remember not to use the cam cover to lever against - its plastic...

Certainly check around the engine for obvious faults,most importantly do a wiggle test on the injector plugs with the engine running - I recently had a TD4 in which was running on 3 all the time.The garage brought it to me to find which cylinder was at fault,live data showed cyl 2,touching the electrical connector to #2 injector brought it back to life - so a simple bad connection was the cause.Not common,but clearly another reason for a fault.A quick session on a decent diagnostic tool will tell you if anthing is amiss.Leaking boost hoses or a dying/dead Maf will not cause your misfire/juddering.

Fridge - I wouldn't expect you to agree with anything I say on here,and I never claim to know every answer to every fault.Anyone who claims to is clearly deluded.Running a LR garage can make you rather cynical about certain vehicles esp I do little servicing work,most of my work is fault finding.But it can also make you gain respect for things that commonly are unpopular.My wife drives a 1.8 petrol FL1 which I bought 7 years ago with 55k on it and a failed head gasket.I rebuilt the engine with all the mods,VERY carefully.Its now on 123,000m and has been a very comfy,reliable and extremely capable workhorse.In poor driving conditions,esp snow/ice it is simply the best LR product.Unless you drive in deep ruts its as capable as any other 4wd I've ever used.

One other point I'd like to make is that most people don't realise that garages actually talk to each other,passing info about cars,owners,tools,technical problems and suppliers etc.This also includes main dealers,so the picture of particular models has quite a large background of info.