defender 300TDi No go

[keithjh]

Hi All,

Vehicle is a 1995 300Tdi CSW (South African Import)

Truck has been in daily use, only recent faults have been to replace the light switch.

Symptoms are

Ignition on click click, glow plug relay starts to chatter starter just clicks dash lights go dim.

So fully charged battery still same symptoms

Changed Starter for a new one- still the same (also changed glow plug relay)

Replaced earth, starter motor to chassis.

Have put another battery on charge from my project will charge overnight to ensure that its fully charged.

Any ideas before I burn it for bonfire night

I am suspecting the battery is goosed or possibly the ignition switch has a fault?

Any ideas

Regards

Keith

[western]

try another start relay, it lives behind fusebox metal panel.

[steve b]

Check your bulkhead earth cluster near the clutch m/c on bulkhead, and on the other side by the heater box

are the main batt live supply's , worth a look

Do the h/l's go dim if on when you try to start?

cheers

Steveb

[discomikey]

checked the battery earth lead too? sounds like excessive reistance through the system

its worth getting a multimeter on the battery, checking voltage and resistance between earth post and starter motor body. check voltage at the starter motor on both main and exciter feeds.

[team_wingnut]

Loose wire or terminal on starter on battery. Battery lead not earthing due to age?

[Tanuki]

"Machine-gun rattle" of relays when you're trying to start is _the_ definitive indication that you have either a weak battery or a high resistance somewhere.

What happens is - current-drain pulls the voltage down to the point where there is insufficient to hold the relay in; the relay then releases - which disconnects some load and the voltage rises - to a voltage hgigh enough for th relay to pull in, re-connecting the extra load, which causes the voltage-drop, so the relay releases, and the voltage rises again.

It could be that the battery has reached the end of its natural life [modern batteries can go from good to bad in a couple of hours, to a point where no amount of charging will recover them] or it could be you have a high resistance somewhere.

Start by checking the battery (or get someone with a load-tester to check it for you) - there's no point trying to look for an on-load voltage-drop in the wiring if the battery's weak.

Then check for: corroded/high-resistance battery terminals, frayed/disconnected earth-leads, A good test is to put a jump-lead direct from the earthed terminal fo the battery to the cylinder-block then try to start: if it now starts you have either a poor connection on the battery-to-chassis earth-lead or the engine-block-to-chassis earth lead.