Help! - My New TD5 won't start

[Gromit]

Hi guys,

I'm stranded at work here. I just bought a '05 TD5 defender and it won't start!!

I have lights and gauges on the dash, it's cranking fine, but won't fire. There's 1/3 tank of diesel in it.

I don't hear the fuel pump prime when I turn the key to position II. Should I hear it? Is it relay controlled?

Am more familiar with a 200tdi, so don't know where to start.

Gonna try the priming sequence now and see what happens.....

Any clues where to start diagnosing?

Thanks!

[Gromit]

Have just noticed the temp gauge moves to the hot end of the scale when I turn on the ignition..

[T1G UP]

Ok you got the classic blue connector problem.

Pop the drivers seat up,turn on the ignition and twiddle the blue loom connector,you will here a relay click and the pump prime and the water in fuel light come on.won't fire unless the pump has primed and the fuel ights on. The erractic temp guage shows the electrical fault quite well.....been there ....done that.

Whilst your there have the plug out of the ECU and check for oil.

[Gromit]

Thanks T1G UP,

I was pulling and reseating the relays in there and managed to fix it. Heard the pump squeak and it primed and the temp went back to normal

Good to know what it actually was, must investigate further and prevent it in future.

thanks a lot!

[diver110]

Whilst your there have the plug out of the ECU and check for oil.

Does this still apply to 05 Defenders? thought it was only early TD5's?

[carlosbeldia]

Do you still believe in Land Rover Press?

[Gromit]

The same problem has occured twice since, but I'm not 100% sure where the problem is. Sometimes just opening the seatbox cures it, which is annoying!!

So I spent 2 hours yesterday pulling the ECU and relay box out to clean up the seatbox, which was a bit damp and mucky. Good to see LR seatboxes still leak years later

There's a hint of oil on the red plug, but not enough to cause a short on the pins, in my estimation. Anyway, I'll probably destroy the loom seal at the head when I get a chance, to allow any oil to escape.

The blue connector isn't plugged into anything. It was wrapped in foam/glue and has a terminator, which I assume jumps some of the pins of the plug?

There appears to be a small crack on the terminator, which presumably is why it was wrapped up in the first place. Can the terminator be removed? I didn't want to try too hard.

Any recommendations on what to get for interrogating the ECU? Is Nanocom PC based, so you just load the software and plug it into the ECU?

( a year or two ago, I wrote an application to take the fuel map from one nanocom file and insert it into another one, based on a spec I found on here. Might be time to see if it actually works )

[T1G UP]

Gromit, the blue plug, terminator?? whatever just jions some wires together, they seem to pul apart overtime. I'd cut and solder each wiring and do away with it ASAP.

[Gromit]

So when it is used, what's the blue plug used for ?

[T1G UP]

**** knows! Lazy ass way of joining looms IMO....get rid

[crwoody]

The blue "plug" is referred to as a "Header" on the wiring diagram, and as T1G UP says is just a way to connect a number of wires together (and an unreliable one at that.)

I had a similar problem on mine a while ago and found it was because of water that had got into the "header" and caused an electrical leakage path, (slightly less that a short!) between two of the connections.

I just cut off all the wires from the header and joined together all the ones of the same colour, I stripped and twisted them then soldered and finally covered each "group" with heat shrink sleeving. Never had a problem since.

Edited to add;

Make sure you have a clean and tight connection on the earth wire that's bolted down directly beneath the ECU too.

[Gromit]

Cheers for the info.

The earth looks ok. When I get a free half hour, I'll chop the plug off and see how it is.