I have just bought a 1996 defender 90 2.5tdi. I have a real job starting it each night when I take the dogs out, but if I jump it with leads from another car, it starts no problem. Had a new battery fitted. It seems as though it doesn't generate enough power on its own or something to top it up. I use it every day and drive about 8 miles. I can't believe that travelling that sort of distance each day, would cause such a problem. Any ideas or help would be useful.
Looks like something is wrong with the alternator or wiring. First check the battery terminals while running. Must have at least 13,5 volts there. Erik-Jan.
If the battery warning light goes out when running and your not getting
13-14 volts at battery when running before condeming the alternator check that the glow plug relay is cutting the power to the plugs it could also be a duff battery
Check the current draw of the starter motor - if it's got duff bearings or brushes it could be trying to draw stupid amounts of power from the battery and only be cranking slowly. Any current draw that's much over
My wife drives about 4 miles every day. Over the last week with the cold mornings it has started OK. On Friday morning I started it and it started (just)! I then put the battery on charge overnight and it was fine the following morning. My battery is not new, but the alternator is.
I suspect in my case that the power taken out of the battery in starting the engine in this cold weather is far more than the alternator can put back in its relatively short journey, so by the end of the week, the is a serious deficit of "umph".
Now you are doing twice the mileage as my car and if I read the post correctly, having a problem every night?
As has been suggested, step 1 is check the battery voltage with the engine running, it should be 13.8v.
If that fails check the leads to the starter motor and the earth lead, also the connections to the battery itself. At the sort of current that is drawn when you spin the engine, even a little resistance can loose a lot of volts.
And dissipate a fair bit of power making the dogey joint warm or even hot. Good sound connections don't get warm under cranking currents, poor ones do.
That sounds suspiciously like a bad earth. Next time you want to start it, put a jump lead from battery -ve to the block (lifting brackets is a good place). If it starts much better then the earth strap between the emgine/gearbox unit and the chassis needs a claean-up under the terminals.
Thank you guys, I will try all of your points at the weekend (hopefully) and report back with the correct result/answer, it's bound to be one of those suggested.
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