I've become the recent owner of a series 3 LWB ute. Which is going great guns and will become a major part of our family tree of vehicles.
I have trouble with the first start on the old girl as she cranks over really slow, like suffering a flat battery or too advanced timing and then she'll fire up and kick off. The following starts are never a problem even if she has sat around all day.
Question, is the cold start light (amber colour) there just for diesel's or should I be doing something else with the ignition ??
Good choice!. I imagine that we'll be seeing you a lot more over the coming months! :)
Are you saying that the starter turns the engine over very slowly when you first start it? I have a knackered battery on my landy (new one is on the shopping list!), which causes the starter to turn very slowly when i first start it in the day. After driving it, if it is left for less than about 4 hours it starts really easily and turns over fast. I was just assuming that the battery doesnt hold its charge/current very well. Yours could be similar.
Perhaps try swapping the battery for one another vehicle which you know is good. mine turns over well off my car battery.
Bad earth straps can also cause starter issues, but if yours goes okay after the initial starting then they should be good!
Mine is a diesel, so im guessing here, but i thought that the cold start light should either:
- Come on with the choke, just to tell you that you have it on
- Be attached to a temperature sensor somewhere and come on when you start the car, and stay on until it has reached a decent temperature (so to tell you that you might want the choke out while its lit)
It may have also been messed with by previous owners to indicate something else!
If you are managing to start and drive it, and its behaving as expectied, then whatever the light does, it cant be too important!
I had a very similar problem. Mine only had a single earth strap, battery to grill panel.
My problem was sorted by cleaning the start motor earth (motor to chassis) and adding additional straps, battery to chassis and engine to chassis. £3-5 from a hellfords near you.
The choke warning light is wired on when the choke is out, and on all petrol Landrovers up to late Series 3 there is also a temperature switch on the cylinder head, held by three studs, which switches on when the engine reaches running temperature, so that the light does not come on until you need to push in the choke. Both switches are prone to give problems, the temperature switch often sticking on so the light is on even when the engine is cold, and if not adjusted correctly the switch on the control can result in the light being on all the time the engine is hot.
For starting you need a low resistance path between the frame of the starter and the negative terminal of the battery. The best way of ensuring this is a heavy lead from the battery to a suitable point on the engine. If you have this you should also have a heavy strap between the engine and the chassis. And it is likely that on an older vehicle (and lets face it, all S3s are old) will also need earth straps from the chassis to any body panels used as an earth by lights etc.
My SII used to be just the same until a while ago we were doing something else which required removing the air filter/battery box and discovered the main engine earth lead hanging by a thread, always tested fine on low current, and when it had been bounced around, but after a cold damp night it was a real bugger to start, mostly it dropped so much voltage there was not sufficient spark, usually started on the overswing as you turned the key back from start to run; making sure not to turn ignition right off.
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