crwoody

As Peter says - "Dim Dip" - the dipped beam filament of the headlight is fed with a reduced voltage, (via a resistor) when the sidelights and ignition are switched on together.

Sounds like exhaust manifold leaking at one of the cylinder head joints to me. Edit; But then again, on a second listen, there seems to be more going on in there.

That is just sooooo wrong on every level

Nasty - sounds like a bit of quick underwear change moment. Seriously though, it sounds to me that the caliper wasn't tightened up/refitted properly, has it been off recently? I must admit that I've never heard of a caliper coming loose. Generally speaking, the bolts/fixing are fit for purpose so long as the correct torque/ locking method has been applied, on that basis I would not have thought it was worth trying to re-invent the wheel - but I can certainly understand your concern.

Might just be worth checking the engine oil level and see if it smells of diesel - especially if it's a bit high. A number of Td5's have been known to have problems with injector seals which allows diesel into the engine oil, but it could also be a crack in the head.

I suppose the best indication that it's working is if you can hear it "roaring" when you rev the engine after being stationary for a long time with the engine ticking over (usually once the temp gauge starts to rise.) The other way is to stick your hand in there and see how many fingers it takes off before stopping. My Td5 used to do this quite regularly when stuck in traffic jams. When on the move though, there is usually enough airflow over the coupling to prevent this. Even if it doesn't get to the fully locked up (roaring) stage, there's usually enough coupling across the viscous unit to provide a fair degree of cooling. If you're not getting it actually overheating, I wouldn't worry too much. I've had one seize up altogether once, but then you get the roaring all the time so its pretty obvious then.

It suggests to me a short to earth somewhere along the wire from the sender to lamp, perhaps one that's aggravated by the movement of the engine when it's running? It's a very simple circuit with a 12v feed to the lamp, a wire from the lamp to the switch then the switch to earth via the engine block, so if the lamp is coming on when it shouldn't it can only be a very few things. Have you tried checking the white/brown wire resistance to earth with both ends disconnected - engine running/stopped? Maybe also to check the pressure switch connector resistance to earth with the wire disconnected, again with engine running/stopped. The only other thing I could think of here is some kind of blockage in the oil feed to the pressure switch but I would have thought that any problem here would have been cleared by removing/replacing the switch and pressure testing.

I can't see how it would do any harm, if the heater is set to cold then there should be no airflow over the heater matrix, so there's no additional cooling to the system anyway. To divert the flow and bypass the matrix would be a nice idea but would require a far more complex valving arrangement, it's debatable whether it would be worth it.

Not a silly question at all. This might help - (From Defender 00MY user manual page 103.) This applies to late 300Tdi's and Td5's, they all have the 10AS alarm ecu.

You can get a plug-to-socket extension cable for the Td5 ECU, so that should save chopping the original loom. As to the relays, I guess they should be easy enough to move, generally just four wires to each one. To be honest though, I had my 90 sat in 3 or 4 feet of water at times, frequently up to the door handles, even floating at one point (until the footwells filled up!) even then it was never really an issue, OK so there was some water in the seatbox afterwards but I just siphoned it out. If the seatbox is full of holes, it might be worth plugging them first though. It appears (on mine anyway) to get in from the top, the cover doesn't even attempt to seal, so once the back of the seatbox is under water it pours in, however, by this time the throttle potentiometer is also under water - so there's another one to think about. Edited to add: - One point to watch out for; next to the ECU there are two (or one, depending on age) connecting blocks or "headers" where there are a number of wires joined together, these are very definitely NOT waterproof and will allow current to pass between some rather sensitive connections when wet - that's the one area I did have a problem with and would not be solved simply by moving the ECU.

" ...They cost themselves a 90 mile recovery......idiots....." Free ride home, must have saved you 3 or 4 gallons of juice - don't knock it

You need the 10AS to operate the LR central locking with a LR keyfob, it also ties in with the Td5 engine ECU and I'm pretty sure it wont work without it . However an aftermarket central locking system can be set up independently of it quite easily, not so sure about getting it to work with an immobiliser though.

I ran my chipped Td5 90 (pre cat) with a straight through system for several years, never had a problem with the Law or MOT's. I did put the centre box back on for a long road trip down to the Pyrenees once, only because I thought the noise might be obtrusive on a long journey, I soon took it back off though when I realised how much difference it makes to the power.

I'm inclined to agree with Western there, however, if you must, for such threading exercises I normally use a length of net curtain wire to push through first, I've not tried it on a chassis though and I would imagine there are plenty of places where it could get snagged.

I would bin the standard Defender screw jack and get hold of a Discovery (1 or 2) hydraulic one instead. The Disco one is shaped at the top to fit under the end of the axle, so you only have to lift a little bit to get the wheel off the ground instead of having to jack the whole body up, fully extending the suspension, before the wheel lifts. They're a lot more compact too.

You might also find it goes better too, the back-pressure caused by the cat restricts the response of the turbo, so it spins up faster without the cat.

Just a quick clarification - when I said " ... with the lights switched on, check the supply side wire, ... then the earth wire .. " I meant to say to check it at the lamp or instrument, not at the switch.

As I've said before, you need to be looking around with a multimeter on this, you should be able to see if it's an earth fault or not by checking for the supply and return side of any affected part. For example - you say the sidelights are not working, so with the lights switched on, check the supply side wire, (red/black = left, or red/orange = right) with the meter negative lead to a body or chassis earth and see if you have 12 volts, if you've got 12 volts but the light is not on, then check the earth wire (black) which will probably also have 12 volts on it which means you have an open earth somewhere. If you repeat this process for any other non-working circuits, you should be able to get more of an idea where it's going wrong, (most of the earth return wires are black.) Remember though, a fair number of these earth wires are joined together (spliced) in headers or actually within the wiring loom itself. Ideally you need the circuit diagram, the pages showing the earth distribution also show the length of wire between joints/splices etc, this can be useful to help pinpoint roughly where a fault may be once you've isolated it to that circuit. Try here for a diagram - http://exerro.com/oldsites/2009/indigoprime.com/landrover/Defender%20MY2002%20Wiring%20Diagram.pdf

From what you say, it sounds like there may be a faulty earth connection somewhere - possibly in the loom. Even for the ground circuits there are a lot of splice connections within the loom, and "headers", multiple connection points attached to the loom, (they look like coloured plugs with wires in one side but not connected to anything.) It's possible one of these splices could have a bad connection due to corrosion or strain. It may be worth trying everything electrical including all lights, horn, radio, wipers - the lot, switch them all on one at a time and see if any one circuit interferes with any another, this may help to pin it down a bit closer.

There should be a direct connection between the front and rear sidelights on each side, the two sides are separated with an individual fuse for either side. The connection front to back are: - Red/Black for LH side/tail & numberplate lights via fuse 11 Red/Orange for RH side/tail lights via fuse 12.

The supply for the instrument cluster gauges all come from the engine ECU so I could understand why they should all go off at once, have you checked the earth point inside the seatbox beneath the ECU? a bad connection here would directly influence the ECU. I am puzzled by the loss of sidelights though, they are fed entirely independently apart from a connection to the ignition switch if you have the dim-dip module fitted, but even then, it goes nowhere near the ECU. I think you need to get in there with a multimeter to sort this one out.

Probably a bit late now - but I've got a spare Td5 exhaust manifold here in decent nick, (the one in the picture above.) If you run into any problems, let me know and it's yours.

Apart from the "lots of Plus Gas" as above, I could only suggest to make sure you use a 6 point socket rather than a 12 pointer for maximum grip and try using a "T" bar instead of a ratchet so you can gently "rock" the nuts to and fro at first, rather than trying to undo them in one hit. Chances are, the nuts will come away with the studs attached so it shouldn't be that bad.

If you mean the two at the front end of the manifold where the stainless pipe joins on to run around the front of the engine - They're M6 x 15mm cap heads (5mm allen key.)

You can fit the later ECU, but as K88 MUD says, you'll need the injector codes - although it will work without them. There again, if you're able to program the codes into the new ECU, you should be equally able to read them from the old one, so no probs there then. I fitted a later (flashable) ECU to my 2001 Td5 and it worked just fine - except that afterwards there was a problem where the engine would not respond to the throttle for a minute or so after starting from cold, it would tick-over perfectly normally, but when trying to rev it, it would just chuff out white/grey smoke (smelling of unburnt diesel,) if left for a minute or so ticking over (not up to temperature,) it then behaved normally. I never did get to the bottom of this problem and now I've sold the car, but I would still be interested to know if anyone else gets the same effect.