GL88 Posted March 3, 2008 Share Posted March 3, 2008 I've got an oily red plug at the ECU on my (49,000 mile) 2000 TD5. So far no other symptoms have appeared but I'd like to get on with fixing it now. The Land Rover technical bulletin here says change the injector harness and the engine loom. But can anyone tell me whether changing the engine loom is really necessary or will I be ok with doing just the injector harness? Judging by the time estimate in the bulletin the harness is quite quick and that must be where the oil is getting into the wires. So once the source of the oil is removed at one end it should stop coming out of the other end sooner or later. I can see why they'd want to do the full job for customers but I can make a point of checking at the other end on a weekly basis and mopping up anything I find there so it feels like that should be enough. Cheers, Guy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
western Posted March 3, 2008 Share Posted March 3, 2008 clean the injector loom section & then seal it with heat rsistant sealant to prevent anymore oil moving along it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
101sean Posted March 4, 2008 Share Posted March 4, 2008 clean the injector loom section & then seal it with heat rsistant sealant to prevent anymore oil moving along it. After doing the injector harness, keep flushing out the red plug to the ecu with brake cleaner or similar solvent over a couple of weeks until oil is gone. I did change the engine harness on mine, took half a day and is a pain to do but you shouldn't need to go that far. I tipped a load of oil from inside my ecu as well, it still works fine thankfully. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimAttrill Posted March 4, 2008 Share Posted March 4, 2008 Rather than sealing the injector harness, we 'unseal' it. Ok, we have a new injector harness and the red plug has been cleaned. We then deliberately destroy the seal between the injector harness and the engine harness on the front of the engine, so that if any more oil comes from the injectors, it goes no further except leaking down the front of the engine. Seems to stop it happening again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GL88 Posted March 4, 2008 Author Share Posted March 4, 2008 Thanks for the help. Question for Jim, I've read elsewhere about this approach of giving the oil somewhere else to go by damaging the seal. I can see how that would work, do you just put a groove in it? And how do you keep water out from enthusiastic wading, etc? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sopes Posted March 4, 2008 Share Posted March 4, 2008 Not sure if this will help but i had the same prob on a disco2 td5 i had to change the loom as the oil had made the loom/wires brittle causing me a misfire. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will F Posted March 5, 2008 Share Posted March 5, 2008 Had the same with my TD5 Defender. Replaced injector loom and main loom due to brittle wires causing misfire. Also had the ecu fuse blowing every so often. Once we had opened the loom the true extent of the damage was shocking. The oil had almost turned the plastic to a brittle bark like substance. Soem of the plastic had even fallen off revealing open wire - hence the fuse blowing. By the way - at no stage did I have any oil within 30cm of my ecu. The ecu plugs were covered with beautiful, powdery, red, dry African dust. rgrds, Will F Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ragerover Posted March 5, 2008 Share Posted March 5, 2008 hi when i changed the loom on mine i used electrical contact cleaner from maplins , take the ecu out , tip the excess from the plug and spray mine took 5 goes till it was totally clear as there was excess in the loom , breaking the seal sound a good idea though i might look at doing that as apreventative measure to stop it happenning again Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimAttrill Posted March 5, 2008 Share Posted March 5, 2008 Re the wading - that is a point, but we don't know anybody who is mad enough to get water up to the top of the TD5 engine. There was a post on a forum somewhere about soldering the wires close to the injector plugs. This will stop the oil wicking up the wires. A good idea? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GL88 Posted March 5, 2008 Author Share Posted March 5, 2008 Re the wading - that is a point, but we don't know anybody who is mad enough to get water up to the top of the TD5 engine. There was a post on a forum somewhere about soldering the wires close to the injector plugs. This will stop the oil wicking up the wires. A good idea? Fair point on the wading but here in the UK a torrential downpour will pretty effectively drench the engine, especially when driving fast through standing water on a dual carriageway. Maybe not such an issue in SA! Soldering was my first thought. In theory it should make a multicore wire much more resistant to oil flowing through the gaps between the bundle of wires inside the insulation sheath. One possible downside is that soldered connections are less resistant to vibration fatigue (and thus fracture) than crimped ones but not sure how much of an issue that is inside the cam box where the wires should not be flapping around anyway. I'm picking up my new injector harness later and will try to see if it is obvious how Landrover have oil proofed it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BogMonster Posted March 5, 2008 Share Posted March 5, 2008 Best solution is to buy an engine which has the wiring on the outside I never did understand why they did that, it was one of those ideas like electric handbrakes where you just KNOW it is going to cause bother. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bell-Auto-Services Posted March 5, 2008 Share Posted March 5, 2008 Best changing both looms, "You cant put a price/time on saftey" and if it shorts or worse you will wish you would have done it correct in the first place. There not that expencive and if a job is worth doing its worth doing correctly. Admitingly some people get away with it by cleaning the engine loom out, but in honesty its not worth it if it goes wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BogMonster Posted March 5, 2008 Share Posted March 5, 2008 I disagree. Most people (and I have seen quite a lot of these) get away with changing the injector harness and cleaning the main loom plugs out with switch cleaner, and they do that because the main harness is about £500 and a massive job to change. I know what I'd do if it was my money - £500 buys a lot of cans of switch cleaner... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bell-Auto-Services Posted March 5, 2008 Share Posted March 5, 2008 I agree lots of people do get away with changing the injector loom only , i also agree that the cost of a harness can buy a bulker of cleaning fluid. The point i was trying to make is , if it does go wrong it may cost even more to repair in the long run. Ive got may be 20 ecu's in my garage from Jan 08 till now that have all failed due to oil shorting them out. Yes ive also got ecus that have been dround in oil and still work fine. The price of a new ecu far exceds the cost of the loom and the labour to fit it. We will have to agree to dissagree on this one, im still in the thinking that if a job needs doing it needs doing correctly. Of course we all have our own opinions so i hope ive not caused any offence. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BogMonster Posted March 6, 2008 Share Posted March 6, 2008 The price of a new ecu far exceds the cost of the loom and the labour to fit it. We will have to agree to dissagree on this one, im still in the thinking that if a job needs doing it needs doing correctly. Of course we all have our own opinions so i hope ive not caused any offence. No offence taken - I was just saying most people will take the cheapest option available at the time I actually thought the Td5 ECU was cheaper than a main harness but I have not checked the prices for a while. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimAttrill Posted March 6, 2008 Share Posted March 6, 2008 Yes Steve, I think the TD5 was designed by the tea lady when the engineer was in the loo! And while I am in a ranting mode, what idiot put the head bolts through the cam carrier? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jandewet Posted August 15, 2016 Share Posted August 15, 2016 Rather than sealing the injector harness, we 'unseal' it. Ok, we have a new injector harness and the red plug has been cleaned. We then deliberately destroy the seal between the injector harness and the engine harness on the front of the engine, so that if any more oil comes from the injectors, it goes no further except leaking down the front of the engine. Seems to stop it happening again. Jim, please contact me on dewetjan@me.com. I would like to get more advice on the plan you made. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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