JOESVTD90 Posted March 6, 2023 Share Posted March 6, 2023 Hi All, My pride and joy a Land Rover Defender 90 TD5 has become unusable due to an issue I can't 100% Pin down. I use the car daily, it has a Stage 2 from Empire Tuning in the UK and I have been driving it with a warped manifold for about 2 months. I had parked it up early morning the day before catostrophic failure, it was running fine with the engine throttle responce being as it should. I then went to start it in the morning after. It was reluctant to start, however it was cold so thought nothing of it. I took the car down the road to take my brother to school and just pulling out of the driveway it felt down on power, like somthing was blocking the exhaust as I couldn't quite hear the engine tone properly, so I gave it some revs to see if the blockage would clear. Upon hoofing the throttle, the car decided that at higher revs and under load, 1 or 2 cylenders then didn't need to fire, kicking blue smoke out the side which means it is burning oil. However when I let off the throttle the engine idles as normal. I have since taken the head off and checked the injector harness and found all the plugs are full of oil as I believe that there is a lack of fuel getting to the engine and so instead it's burning oil. Further confirming this is the lack of whine from the fuel pump that usually occurs when the ignition is turned to position 2. However there doesn't seem to be any oil on the ECU end. There is also still 0 Engine warning lights, but the fuel pump doesn't seem to be doing anything... Is it possible that the car is in a state of immobilisation? Or is there any way to check if the fuel pump or just the wiring to it is broken. I did run the car out of fuel by accident as the fuel guage no longer works, wondering if this would have anything to do with the condition of the pump. Any advice would be greatly appreciated The car was only serviced 3 weeks ago so I am Mildly miffed off it has already broken on me, especially when it didn't have a problem before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eightpot Posted March 6, 2023 Share Posted March 6, 2023 It may just be a failed fuel pump. Try turning the ignition on, then pressing the throttle pedal down five times in succession - this should start the fuel pumps priming process and you should hear the pump operate several times while it purges air from the system. If you hear nothing, or very loud pump noises you probably have a bad pump. Try it first and report back.. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JOESVTD90 Posted March 6, 2023 Author Share Posted March 6, 2023 2 hours ago, Eightpot said: It may just be a failed fuel pump. Try turning the ignition on, then pressing the throttle pedal down five times in succession - this should start the fuel pumps priming process and you should hear the pump operate several times while it purges air from the system. If you hear nothing, or very loud pump noises you probably have a bad pump. Try it first and report back.. Hi, Thank you for the advice. I have run 2 purges and the fuel pump is making no noise! There’s a small electrical humming that I can only hear when the purge is ‘active’ but no pump noise whatsoever. Could this be an electrical problem? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Def Harry Posted March 6, 2023 Share Posted March 6, 2023 Almost certainly fuel pump failure and running out of fuel wont have helped it. Was the pump pretty noisy before? They are usually fairly loud before they give up. I'd replace the pump. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JOESVTD90 Posted March 7, 2023 Author Share Posted March 7, 2023 15 hours ago, Def Harry said: Almost certainly fuel pump failure and running out of fuel wont have helped it. Was the pump pretty noisy before? They are usually fairly loud before they give up. I'd replace the pump. Yes, it would scream like a banchee before it finally gave up. Would make a lot of sense if it was that. Once replaced and the system purged, should it run properly? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Def Harry Posted March 7, 2023 Share Posted March 7, 2023 Yeah, swap it out, run the purge cycle. Should go back to normal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eightpot Posted March 7, 2023 Share Posted March 7, 2023 Make sure to get a VDO pump, the cheap copies don't generally last very long. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Escape Posted March 8, 2023 Share Posted March 8, 2023 It's not uncommon for a TD5 to start and run even with a non-functioning electric fuel pump. But it will be low on power and might not run on all 5. Seems to fit your symptoms. You could always take off the feed to the fpr and run the pump to check flow (and pressure, if you have a suitable gauge). When you say you've taken the head off, I assume (hope) you only mean the valve cover to access the injector loom? Never hurts to give those connectors a good clean. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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