symeon

Unfortunately the spare head has cracks too. Not to the extent of the one I took off, but still cracked. Got someone looking to sort me a decent head out, hopefully find out today if he's got one. Got gasket ready to put on as I was taking it off to do the core plug anyway, and the bolts were new last time the head was off so they're ok for another fitting. Knew the bloody thing was working ok for too long, then it all comes at once. Anyone know what you can do with scrap 300tdi cylinder heads, aside weigh them in?

Well, the heads knacked. Took it off, and the valves for cylinders 2, 3, and 4 all have cracks between them, and also between injector holes and glow plugs. Time for a new or recon head, if the old spare one I've got is unsalvageable.

Thanks for the thoughts guys. Luckily I can do my own work for the most part, otherwise it'd have gone the journey the first time the turbo went lol. I agree that another vehicle, landy or otherwise could have all if not more issues, I'm just getting fed up of the constant fixing lately, especially with limited funds. Think I'll just have to check it all through when I'm fixing it again in the next week or so, and see if I can pre-empt any future potential breakdowns. Cheers again guys.

I have a 98 repatriated auto d1 300tdi, and I'm wondering if it's time to call it a day on trying to keep it going. In the 5 years I've had her it's had 2 turbos, another head after the rocker shaft let go and snapped into 3 pieces, 3 full exhausts, a radiator, numerous bushes, 3 batteries, various hoses, 2 sets of rear shocks, 3 flatbed recoveries, a visit from the fire brigade, full new brake lines, new brake discs all round twice, 2 timing belts, and she is now in need of even more. Do I keep her going only to discover something else in a couple more months, or is it time to strip her for what useful parts are left? Thanks for reading...

Don't know if you're still having this problem, but this could help. I'm not sure if the older system has it, but the later D1 alarm systems have a crash sensor in the alarm unit, which can (in)conveniently be activated by the passenger kicking the footwell in just the right place, which in turn activates the hazard lights. Deactivation, if I remember, is turning the ignition off, then on to activate the dash lights, then back off, then on again, and it should deactivate the hazards. As for the lack of starting, it could be linked to the crash sensor, but its not definite. That could just be a dodgy wire as stated above. HTH Sy

So, after waiting 3 weeks for numerous independent garages, and so-called auto-diagnosticians to get back to me, or even come to me to sort out my fob problem, yesterday I decided Id had enough. So I bit the bullet and bought a fob and programmer from RemoteKey.co.uk. It arrived first thing, and within the 30 seconds they say it takes, my car was de-immobilised and running. I cant recommend them enough. Had I just done that 3 weeks ago, I would have been back on the road within 24 hours of my fob dying. Anyone on the fence wondering whether or not they should use them to get a fob sorted, just do it.

Well, Im still no further forward. Even resorted to going to the dealers to get my EKA code (which was free btw), which still didnt work. The reason I think it didnt work however, is not because of the alarm box, but there's switches in the lock that sense these turns you make, and when we were trying to disengage the alarm with the hawkeye, it was set to turn the immobiliser off by turning the key in the door.... which didnt work. So if that didnt work, then the EKA is not gonna work either probably. So now, Im just trying to find someone with a Hawkeye to come down to me, rather than me take it there, and program a working fob into the alarm system, to see once and for all whether its just the fob or something else going on. Bloody cars! But, I did get a nice printout of my codes and where it was first sold, which was JLR in Kabushiki Kaisha, just up the road from Tokyo on 27th November 1998.

Hi guys, thanks for replying. Im gonna be going over the car again today, so Ill be checking all the internal earth points and under the fuse box as advised. Also, after looking up something else last night, Ill be checking the alternator outputs, as if thats going it can output a permanent low voltage apparently. For information, yes, it is a 2 button fob, and yes, the batteries have been changed numerous times, When the Hawkeye unit was plugged in the fob wasnt showing as having any RF output, so seemingly the fob is dead, but at the time I didnt have another one to program to it. Its this low voltage thats bugging me, as it shouldnt really be there, and tbh, the stop solenoid shouldnt be getting full volts if the immobiliser is active anyway should it? As a side note, does anyone in the County Durham area have a Hawkeye or similar to try and program this new fob for me? Beer tokens are available.

As the title above, I have a significant issue with my repatriated '98 disco immobiliser. I did some searching, and although found some similar problems, they dont seem to correspond to my problems fully. Please excuse the essay, but thought Id include everything Ive tried and found. The engine is a Japanese '98 EDC automatic, no DDS, no Spider unit. It started off by intermittently having trouble unlocking the car with the key fob. Nothing new, took it apart, one of the switches fell off. Re-soldered another one in its place, sorted. Now and then, the main beam light on the dash would glow ever so slightly with the dip beams on. Quick flash of the headlights and it would rectify itself. Fast forward to Tuesday last week: Key fob was having a really bad time of unlocking the car. I could open the car with the key itself, which would unlock all the doors, but the fob was just not having it, even with my rain-dance like movements in the carpark, but I needed to use the fob to disable the immobiliser due to it being EDC controlled. Finally got in the car, started, put headlights on, slight glow from main beam lamp, flashing headlights didnt work, went home with driver's headlamp glowing dimly, but passenger side as normal. Wednesday morning: Went to the car - Nothing happened. Could open the car with the key, but absolutely nothing from the fob, but it would crank over (checked just in case). Spent about 2 hours trying to get it to work, and all of a sudden it did, so started it up and went up to my local LR guy to see if he could disable the immobiliser or something to stop it happening until I could get a new fob. He plugged in his hawkeye, but couldnt find such a function in the system to do so. Went to go home, and again, nothing. Sat for about another hour, and finally it came to life, so took it home, and since then its done absolutely nothing. Battery is ok, was new 6 months ago. Heavy duty earth cables fitted by me from battery to engine and body/chassis. Stop solenoid output is working, albeit about 1.5v lower than battery voltage. Also shows around 2v when ignition off. Solenoid checked out of the pump as working. All fuses appear ok. Tried another alarm ecu and fob, which unlock the car, although wont disengage the immobiliser due to not being code linked to the ECU (which I found out after). Went to program the working fob to the original alarm, but I have no bonnet switch to press with it being a japanese one apparently. Found there's an input to the alarm ecu for the bonnet switch, which goes straight to earth basically, so spliced a wire in to act as a switch - still nothing. Out of curiosity, checked continuity of the 'switch', and found a similar 2v coming out of the alarm ecu to what I found at the stop solenoid, doesnt matter if ignition on or off. Oh, and prior to this issue, it started on first click each time, so not engine related seemingly. Help.....

I would say so yes. Normally when that happens, people dont realise until its too late and the engine runs away with itself, drinking the oil for fun til its dead. It just so happens that you've located the problem by accident after leaving the hoses off. New turbo time Im afraid, unless you want to try the ebay special route and replace seals or the central cartridge itself. Sy

What colour smoke are we talking? Mine did this, and it was the turbo dumping oil down the exhaust, as well as overfueling, so had a mix of blue oil smoke and whitish unburnt diesel smoke, depending whether I was idling or under load.

I spoke too soon. I have yet to get the new coolant hose, my local independant was shut early when I went to get it, and now my oil pressure sensor isnt working. I seem to have some oil pressure at least, as there was a slight leak on the feed pipe to the turbo, but I dont have any light at all, never mind whilst running. When I put a meter on the sensor I got 0.2v, regardless of running or not. My temperature gauge also doesnt appear to work, though I might not have taken it for a long enough run, but the sensor works, as Ive tested that too. Just not knowing whether I have a good enough oil pressure or not Im reluctant to take it out anywhere at the moment. Simon

Cheers. One thing I could do with is a solution for the kickdown cable after swapping to the standard pump, as the pieces needed are rarer than number 4 injector apparently. But so far so good. I finished the turbo swap today, and all appears good. But of an 'oh no' moment when I went for a drive and a whole load of smoke came out again, but think it was just some residue being burnt off in the exhaust. Just need a new coolant hose now (been rubbing on the AFM) and all should be good... ..should be. Simon

Well, finally got the turbo off the 'working' disco today, after much shouting, grinding, and swearing that is as the nuts had rounded off. Lets just say, Im surprised its lasted this long, as not only is there oil dumping down the exhaust side as I suspected, but the manifold branches are cracked severely. There is hardly any play in the impeller though, hence the reason Id not considered the turbo initially, as there was very little oil on the air side. Just when you think you've heard of everything when it comes to land rovers, something else comes along. Simon

Thanks for the reply. I had a feeling this was coming. Not looking forward to doing the actual swap, even though I'd been considering it anyway. Although having a whole spare disco out the back is going to come in handy for this. Knew there was a reason I hadn't scrapped it yet. Again, thanks. Simon