DII TD5 Poor starting

Dave Hi,

I know it may sound strange since your starter motor appears to be working ok but could you please confirm that your battery has enough voltage?

May I also suggest you check the crankshaft and/or camshaft position sensors?

Take care Pantelis Giamarellos

White "smoke" is more often than not unburnt fuel.

Timing/compresion problems would be suspect on older lumps, guess a timing sensor could be a bit iffy on a TD5, and the comment about if the battery is good enough, might be relevant too. It's got a "Lot" of work to do, to kick a TD5 into life, especially if it's not quite up to snuff. Alternator/charging troubles?

Just guessing, cos I cant think of anything else...

DaveB.

That is one thing worth checking. I think the battery is orginal thus

6 3/4 years old... Volts could well be sagging below which the ECU can tolerate.

According to RAVE if the ECU doesn't get a valid signal it fails to a "do not do anything" mode, it certainly doesn't fire the injectors as getting that wrong could be very expensive...

Air in the fuel, as indicated by the fuel pump mewwwwing, bothers me or is that normal for a TD5? By mewwwing I don't mean the steady whine but a definate sudden on set mewwww... that tails off. Investigation of the fuel filter (in case it was a bit loose) showed that this DII doesn't have the water sensor in the bottom of the filter or the wiring for it, at least not dangling loose near by.

Air leak on the lift side of the fuel line from the pump... enough to allow the fuel to return to the tank syphoning back along the line when the vehicle is stationary for a period of time. When you switch on the pump it refills the line with compressed air (drawn in via the perforation) followed by diesel. Eventually the system purges its self but not until after its splutterd the cyclinders with not quite the normal dose of derv to fire.

I had the same issues on a 1990 RRC VM. Drove me nuts for around 18months until the pipe eventually became so rotten that it allowed derv to leak out sufficiently quickly to leave a puddle on the drive and tickover became an issue to the constant drawing of air. That said the pump on the VM was a lift type pump don't know how the TD5 works.

Until you sort where the air is getting in it sounds like you are going to have issues.. Loose pipe jubilee clips.. loose fuel filter or perforated pipes is where I would be exploring.

Lee D

Both fuel pumps are in the tank with the level sender. A lift pump to a "jet pump" (what ever one of those is) then a presurised fuel line to the engine via the filter and a return line via a fuel cooler and filter. There is a fuel pressure regulator on the block that limits the common rail to 4 bar.

I'd expect any hole on the outside would to piss fuel all over the place as I think all the lines are under some pressure. I guess there could be a leak internal to the pump which is inside the tank... What I don't know is if this mewwwing due to air is "normal" or not. As I said you can't hear the fuel pump inside the cabin with the doors and windows shut but it's damn obvious outside.

At least the Disco has an access hatch in the boot floor, so you don't have to drop te tank to get at the fuel pump. Just remove one of the jump seats and load of trim instead (at least according to the book).

I've had a pump failure on my 02 D2. The pump got very noisy and I replaced it before it died completely. It wasn't an air-in-fuel type of noise and didn't stop once the air was purged..

Forgetting all your bongs and warning lights I wonder if this is an injector O-ring seal problem although the symptoms seem a little different to those that I encountered. Injector seals gone => air in fuel.

Do you recall anything like this description? I couldn't make any sense of it initially but with hindsight it all fits!

In my case starting was always instantaneous but it began to develop a slight hesitation immediately after initially firing then proceeded to behave normally. The hesitation got worse and failure to start occurred occasionally. Cutting out whilst driving then began which on most occasions was resolved by stopping for a (longish) rest and restarting.

The problem seems to be at its worst if the engine is allowed to get hot and then cool down. If the engine never gets hot you can check, check and recheck and all seems well.

If you have an external fuel leak, the chances are that you'll smell it.

Mine seems to make the normal level of whine with added mewwwing as the air is purged.

I shall have to dig out RAVE again and see where those O rings are. Isn't one of the other symptoms of O ring trouble is diesel in the oil? My Oil level is OK, certainly not high.

The only time it's occasionaly a little rough is when going down hill in 5th with just the meerest hint of throttle. And I do mean the meerest hint the hill being steep enough that no throttle engine braking barely slows the car.

Possibly, I have a very poor sense of smell but I suspect others would notice.

I didn't get oil level problems - or they were so insignificant as to be unnoticeable. But then, it may have been the injector (copper)washer but as both were changed at the same time, who knows.

That's a reminder - I had something similar. Small 'throttle' opening going downhill slowly gave a sort of surging feel with a roughness to the exhaust note.

I was talking to someone about their Disco TD5 recently who told me that 2 or 3 times the fuel line has fractured somewhere near the fuel tank - he reckoned it was a known weakness on that vehicle - might be worth checking out. Regards Tony.

(copper)washer

Mine wasn't happy at all last night, had to abort taking the lad to Scouts. It started to get rough then out of power going up a hill, managed to coax it to a safe place to stop. Idled baddly for a few seconds then died. Fuel pump wailing away... Let it sit for a few seconds, wouldn't restart. Off and on started after 15 seconds of cranking rough as old boots but picked up, fuel pump still wailing. Drove home, without incident but possibly a bit down on go. Fuel pump wailing when home (about 10 miles).

This morning, I let the pump mewwww through two cycles of on/off of the ignition (it times out after about a minute) it started fairly well. Restarted a couple of other times after waiting for the first mewww to finish. Got home and did the five throttle pushes purge, started on the button. Will see what it's like in an hour or two.

The fuel lines are under at least four bar with the pump running any hole I would expect to squirt fuel out, there are no drips or puddles. How can air get in when the thing is running? As it played up yesterday, when running, I suspect that it must be the injector seals, where else is there pressure above one bar to push "air" into the system?

I think it's going to get a trip to Nigel Price.

Just come back from Nigel Price 4x4 with a very expensive copper washer.

One of the seals was indeed blowing the other four appeared OK, also oil in the injector harness and camshaft oil seal leaking. Hopefully that has made it a happy engine again.