Se7enUp Posted September 18, 2008 Share Posted September 18, 2008 Well, leaving out on Friday morning, I headed north and reached the lake district in time to see the sights and then a lovely sunset over Coniston water. Sleeping in the Landy proved to be a great success and it was difinately more cosy and comfortable than using a tent. In the morning I had the compulsory “Cumberland Butty” (with apple sauce) at the Bluebird café on the lake before heading off to Scotland. Heading through the centre of Glasgow was a bit of a mistake, it looked the quickest way north and it was a Sunday after all! After 2 hours of stop/start traffic, I was on my way again and soon the country side changed to heather, hills and mountains (although they were all covered in cloud) I passed Fort William and eventually stopped on the shores of Loch Lochy. Again, camping in the Landy was a great success and in the morning I cooked a smashing breakfast as the mist cleared from the loch. I got back on the road and headed for Skye. Crossing the bridge into Skye, Patsy (the Faithfull Td5) seemed to be a little slower than earlier in the day but seemed happy enough. I headed up to the far north of the island and camped at Score Bay. This is a large bay with towering cliffs and stunning sea views of the Western Isles. In the morning I headed back to Portree, and that’s where the real adventure started! As I drove into Portree, I realised I’d missed my turn off (I was planning to tour the south if the island). I pulled into a deserted garage and looked at the map. I’d missed the turning! As I went to pull out of the garage, Patsy stalled! She restarted easily enough but didn’t sound well at all. She was running on 4 cylinders (3 ½ as it eventually turned out!). I nursed her into the centre of Portree and as luck would have it, parked up outside a cattle feed warehouse was a tricked up Defender. As I pulled into the carpark, Jamie, the truck owner came out to see Patsy. I explained about the misfire and Jamie went inside and called a friend called Steve who worked at a local garage called Highland Motors. I was given directions and headed to the garage. On arrival I was directed into a free bay and then Steve went to work trying to find the source of the misfire. We plugged in his diagnostic equipment but none of the many fault codes recorded helped us much. The ECU connectors were checked for oil contamination but were clean. The likely suspect was a failed injector. Problem was the garage didn’t stock LR parts and the nearest dealer was in Inverness!!! I called the RAC and they sent out a truck from a neighbouring garage. They looked at the engine and agreed the best course of action was to take Patsy to Inverness. After a couple of hours wait we were put on a flatbed and taken to the dealers. It was closing time when we arrived so I booked Patsy in and parked her on some waste ground next to the garage. In the morning they took her in and went to work. They diagnosed a failed Air Mass Flow Sensor and changed the faulty part. They said Patsy was still not too well but she was running slightly better. With no option I decided to try heading home. After 24 miles of nursing Patsy south, the misfire returned with a vengeance! I called the LR dealer and they said I’d probably need a full set of injectors (5) at around £400 each – and labour – and VAT!!! Jeez!!! I called Airbrush, who got on the net and found me the telephone number for Ian at IRB Developments (Porny here on the forum) After a quick call to Ian I then called the RAC and arranged recovery to Ians workshop. The RAC were great and I can’t praise them enough, they first sent out a grumpy patrolman who started Patsy up, switched her off and then said “that sounds rough” – I sort of knew that already! Anyway within the hour a flatbed arrived, Patsy climbed on the back and we headed south. At Carlisle, we swapped flatbed and continued the journey. By now it was starting to get late. I called Ian and told him it would be really late before I got to him. He said he would come out to his workshop (situated on a farm complex) and let me in as there was a security gate at the entrance. Things were going to plan until the flatbed driver said I’d need to swap flatbeds again as he was coming to the end of his shift. This happened 2 more times and I eventually arrived at IRB Developments at 1 AM!! Ian was waiting at the roadside to guide us in. As soon as Patsy was off the flatbed, Ian plugged in his diagnostic kit and went to work. Withing 2 minuted he’s found the main problem, Injector 1 was not responding. Ian’s software allows him to fire individual injectors and number 1 was very very silent! Ian went home and I settled down for a night on the farm. I woke pretty late in the morning and grabbed a quick meal before Ian arrived. We got Patsy into the workshop and set about swapping the failed injector. We used a slide hammer type tool to pull the injector out. It was replaced with a good known replacement (at substantially less than LR dealer prices!!!) and Patsy roared into life! She sounded back to normal but Ian wasn’t happy. With the diagnostic it plugged in, we could see that one of the “good” injectors was having to really compensate every now and then. This resulted in a slight miss (the engine seemed to rock a little). Patsy had always done this and with my only experience of LR diesels being a 2.5Na – Patsy (to me) seemed to be smoother than a smooth thing. Ian decided to try replacing the unhappy injector and in a few minutes Patsy was running smoother that I would have ever thought possible. No engine rocks at all, just a smooth tick over and an even smoother rise in revs when the throttle was pressed. Patsy was back and now better than ever before! Talking to Ian about tuning, we discussed engine mapping (my other car is a sportscar and I have spent hours playing with engine maps) and Ian suggested trying Patsy with a mapped ECU. We bolted it in place and I went for a test drive – WHAT A DIFFERENCE!!! Everything about driving Patsy was better. The engine pulled better, was smother through the gears, sounded better and seemed to have loads more usable torque. I drove back to the workshop and told Ian not to bother taking it out! The drive home from Ian’s was a revelation. Patsy is so much nicer to drive, so much smoother and I realised I didn’t need to change gear as often as before. I realised I was staying in 5th for some roundabouts! I can see why people report fuel savings when fitting Ian’s ECU’s, your whole style of driving changes to a far more relaxed manner. So, here I am, home at last after being stranded 700 miles from home. Thanks to Airbrush for getting me telephone numbers (and generally taking the pi55) Thanks to the RAC for superb service (I definitely got my monies worth out of them this year) And a huge thank you for Ian!!! (Porny here on the forum) For meeting me, a complete stranger at some ridiculous time of the morning, for getting Patsy running better than she ever has since I’ve owned her (for a decent price too!) and for basically saving the day and making a happy ending for my Scottish adventure! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
white90 Posted September 18, 2008 Share Posted September 18, 2008 Ian Top Bloke! Glad you got it all back together and it didn't spoil your break to much Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mo Murphy Posted September 18, 2008 Share Posted September 18, 2008 Bravo Ian ! Glad it all got sorted. Mo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ada Posted September 19, 2008 Share Posted September 19, 2008 hope ya did'nt eat the choccie biscuits......they were out of date n stale Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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