beekay

Evening all, Started to hear a high pitch chirping from under the bonnet during the cold weather. Seems to ease off a bit once warmed up. I seem to remember past other posts mentioning this as a 300 tdi signature tune, but can't remember what causes it. My guess is that it is the water pump or alternator bearings but with all the clatter I cant locate it. Any ideas or is there anything on the way out? Thanks. (1995 300Tdi 74K miles)

Hi, You say that it couldn't be a bad connection because the ignition light and glow plug light came on. However, after disconnecting the battery and reconnecting , it started fine. A clicking solenoid is a classic symptom of current starvation to the starter motor caused either by a faulty/poorly charged battery or a poor earth or positive connection. A starter motor on a cold diesel engine draws a huge current, any high resistance connections will cause a large voltage drop which in turn drops the solenoid out allowing the battery voltage to come back up and the starter to engage again, and so on... hence the click click click. Lower current devices such as dash lights and relays will not generally be affected as they do not create enough voltage drop across the faulty connection. I suggest that assuming you have checked the battery charge condition and found it to be good, you did indeed have a bad connection onto the battery terminal which you rectified by disconnecting and reconnecting. Still it would be a good idea to check the other connections such as the chassis/gearbox earth and main starter solenoid positive feed just in case. If after all this you still have problems, get the battery checked properly using a battery analyser or drop tester (Quickfit will generally do this free of charge) or any auto electrical place, and make sure the alternator is charging the battery correctly - winter is upon us!!! Hope this helps.

Thanks for all the advice. In the end I put in the one shot grease and as the weather was good for a change, I did the oil seals as well! Suppose I'd better keep an eye on things if this oil migration thing happens over time. Still a good job done.

Thought I'd try and resolve the weeping swivel seals on my 95MY Defender by replacing the swivel oil with one shot grease. Straight forward job, but the guy at the store asked me how many I wanted because some models take a pack and a half of the grease in each swivel. I bought the blue soft pack of Bearmach grease (not sure of the quantity) and put one in each housing. Does anyone know if this is the correct amount for my vehicle? Cheers.

Jim, I'm sorry I didn't get to read this sooner but I haven't been able to log on for a couple of days due to work commitments. I would have bitten your hand off for that offer, but I placed an order with local main stealer thinking that £17 + vat was a bargain. Thanks for taking the trouble to help out.

Thanks to everyone for the replies. It appears that there are a few different methods LR used for the dim-dip circuit. Mine apparently doesn't use a relay, but diverts the live light feed through a large 1 ohm resistor onto the dipped headlight feed when the sidelight position is selected. The reason I couldn't find the resistor is that it was tucked away between the inner and outer wing on the drivers side. I had to remove the blank wing top vent panel to get to the fixing which was an M6 nut, bend my arm around between the inner and outer wing and wthdraw the unit. Thanks to Ralph for pointing me in the right direction . The fault was obvious, one of the wires had become detached from the end of the resistor. This is non repairable because of fused ceramic end plugs, but a new LR part No. XBL10003 is about £20. I am going to attempt to post a couple of pics to show the item in question as it may be of use in the future. The view through the wingtop shows a couple of holes toward the back of the inner wing and behind this is where the unit was hidden.

Sorry to broach this subject again, but I am pulling my hair out due to lack of/incorrect information. My dim/dip facility has packed up! Headlights and sidelights still work fine. I have a N-reg 96 MY Defender TA chassis No. The Haynes manual says there is a voltage transformer/control unit behind the dash, so today out came the dash.....no control unit! Can't find anything in the LR workshop manual relating to the dim/dip feature. Have tried looking for anything that is controlled by the sidelight operation and goes onto the headlights, but the cables just disappear down the main loom. Can anyone shed any light on this problem. I need to know where the voltage drop device is. Please help only a few strands of hair left!!!!!!

I think there was a thread similar to this a couple of weeks ago. So, just to add my two-penneth again, I have had the Bearmach item fitted to my 95 year Defender for about three years. It's the one with the grease nipples and has proven to be very robust. The rear door mounting plate is showing signs of peeling as mentioned earlier, but this is pretty minor. Apart from that there are no issues. FYI the Paddock part PM976 is the Bearmach item BA132 and its only £110.64 for the 2002 on model. Even cheaper for the pre 2002 item. Personally I am very pleased with it, a very solid item.

Evening all, Just noticed today that my dim dipped feature has failed. Normal dipped beam still works in the headlight switch position but the sidelight switch position only brings on the two small sidelights not the dim headlights. I have looked in the Haynes manual which describes a resistor limiting the headlights to sixth power when in sidelight mode. Could it be this that has failed and if so where is it? Any ideas much appreciated. 1995 300Tdi.

Cheers Mo, I had thought of that briefly. I know my td5 has this lube in the swivels. What are the pros and cons of using the grease as opposed to oil?

Cheers Ralph. I new you were going to say that Still I'm going to have to wait till it stops raining.... Could be a while yet!

HI, I have a very slight oil leak from my driver side swivel seal (drip down the tyre inner sidewall). There is no pitting on the surface of the ball, and no play in the associated bearings so I assume it is just the seal itself. I have checked out the tech archive and seen the thread on fitting a complete new swivel assembly (one of the messiest jobs you'll ever do, apparently). Have I got to go through all that just to replace the seal? Or....is there a cheaty way!

Hello all, just got the underside of my 2004 110 ready for Waxoiling but have discovered that the areas around the rear wheel arches are only sealed on one side. It looks like the passenger side panels have all been sealed from the factory with a thick automotive mastic/goop to stop water ingress. The drivers side however (in true Land Rover style) has been overlooked. Can anyone tell me what this product is. It looks like it is applied with a brush and just wiped around the areas where underside panels meet.

Just some personal opinion here, but, I have a swingaway wheel carrier fitted to my 300tdi 90 from Paddocks. I took a chance with it as I didn't know anyone else who had one. It has been fitted for nearly 3 years now and is still in top condition, the powder coating has not come off anywhere and it is really well made IMHO. I paid £110 for it and I dont think it is much more expensive now. The only slightly bad point is that all the pivot points have grease nipples so you have to wipe it off every so often to avoid grease getting on the wife, lover, kids, dog etc. I came off the phone to Mantec yesterday as I want to fit what is apparently the best wheel carrier to my 2004 110. Just a word of possible use is that it appears to be best to go direct to Mantec - £235 inclusive of VAT plus £7-50 pp for all models. I priced it at a local distributor and it was £20 more expensive.

Great stuff as usual. Thanks chaps.