My 'fender stopped yesterday for the first time

Hi groupies,

I wonder if anyone can shed light on why my 97 'fender Tdi 300 just stopped spontaneously yesterday...

I should say that it was p*ssing down at the time, and had just done a couple of big 'splash-throughs' 5 mins previously (I wanted to get out of the mud and water before it became impassable), though they didn't stop it at the time.

Ok... so there I was, driving along through the worst rain I've seen in at least 10 years when suddenly nothing was happening in the engine dept. Pulled over to side of road, and called the RACV (like the AA or RAC in blighty). Eek! Expected wait time: 2 hrs... So I decided to have a poke around myself...

Symptoms:

Engine cut out entirely and without warning- no misfires, coughing or surging. On attempted restart, no dash warning lights, no starter motor, nothing. BUT... other electricals seemed to be working fine- interior lights, radio etc all working.

If you don't want to hear the whole story, just skip a bit - I got carried away typing it out :)

"Ho ho!", I thought... "I've probably just blown a fuse, or something's wet, and for once I have a complete set of spares onboard, AND CRC to disperse any water!"

Took the cover off the inside fusebox under the dash. All fuses there seemed fine, though there *was* a tiny trickle of water coming down behind it. Wiped up what I could of the trickle and refitted cover.

Had a look at the main fuses at back left of engine bay... all fine there, too. Had a good look around for any obvious signs of water splash on any electricals... nothing... all as dry as a dingo's donger.

Scratched head.

Got back in, dried hair & hands on the travelling rug (still p*ssing down, natch), and figured... "oh well, just wait for the RACV man to turn up." and started reading the paper. I'm no auto sparkie, btw!

Every now and again, I tried the ignition just in case it was something that got wet (though I couldn't see anything obviously soaked under the bonnet) that might have dried itself out.

About 1 1/2 hours later... Bingo! Engine now working as normal. Phone rings about 3 seconds after engine firing up... it's the RACV man... nice chap... says he'll come out anyway (about 30 kms from where he was), and that I should start driving towards him. Top Bloke!

About 4 kms down the road (tarmac by now)... SPLAT... same thing again. 5 mins later... it fired up again ok. Hmmm... that's odd.

Rendezvous-ed with RACV man about another 10 kms down the road... Wound down the window and told him it all seemed to be working fine now, and that it must've dried out... He agreed and said that the warmer the engine bay got, the drier it would get, so I should probably just keep going, but not too fast, in case it all got wet again. Seemed like sage advice given that the rain was now so bad that I could bearly see him across the road. Either that, or he didn't want to get out of his vehicle (understandably) ;)

Ok... so kept going to the next major town, which is about half way to my place. The mighty fender just ploughed on through the worst rainstorm here in about a decade without missing a beat, through puddles, flooded sections of road etc... 'Ha!", I thought "It's fixed itself".

Driving down the main drag of this town... SPLAT. Stopped again. It wasn't a puddle this time, as I was only doing about 45 km/h. Lots of Christmas shoppers running blindly across the road, you see :D.

Rang the RACV again... OMFG... *another* wait... this time 3 hours! It was just after 5PM now, and no doubt everyone had flat batteries in their office carparks ;)

Anyway... another hour goes by before the Landy fires up again, and I drive the rest of the way home without incident.

What a trip! 5 hours or so to go 80kms in total. On bitumen. In the middle of the day. During a "drought". In Australia. ... sheesh.

Ok... I'm home now, and drying myself out over the central heating. Wife says "This rain will be great for the garden!". Hmmmm... RACV guy rings my mobile and says he can't find me. "I'm home... it fixed itself again", I say. He says "That's great... as long as you got home ok.". "Any idea what caused it?" I ask. "Could be a loose connection under the main fusebox" he says. "Those intermittent problems are hard to trace, but I had a defender like that last year, and new connectors solved it- could be worth a look".

So (phew)... now the question...

Does that sound plausible? Could it just have been a loose connector under the main fusebox? I noticed the wiring there is pretty heavy duty, and that the fuses are HUGE... like 60 AMPS or so!!

Anybody else had this problem? I'd like to fix it all up before I go bush again. Where I like to go, it could mean a wait of potentially days (and mega expense!) before anyone could find me and fix it. Should I pull all the connectors and fit new ones and those nice little water-proofing shrink wrappers to all the joins? I really wouldn't want to get caught in the middle of nowhere unable to start.

Either that, or I just wait for our drought-ridden climate to get back to normal before I venture bushward, I 'spose ;)

TIA, and sorry for the long story- I just had to get it off my chest!

Reply to
asdf
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I'd check the battery earth lead. Take it off completely, clean it _and the hole it's bolted through_ and make good the connection, then smear it over with vaseline/silicone to seal it.

I'd also maybe add an extra earth lead, chassis to engine.

Reply to
Paul - xxx

On or around Mon, 15 Dec 2008 14:06:28 +1100, "asdf" enlightened us thusly:

being recent (FSVO)... has it got an immobiliser?

Reply to
Austin Shackles

Extra as in addition to the one(s?) that are already there? Worth checking those out as well as the battery - chassis. I'd expect starting troubles to show first though, rather than just a sudden death.

But would the lack of an engine - chassis earth stop a 300TDi? I may well be wrong but I thought they had and engine driven injector pump etc so once running stopping is case of killing the fuel supply and hopeing it's not worn so much that it can burn it's own oil... I guess a broken earth could cause the fuel cutoff solenoid to drop out and cut thre fuel. Have look there and for any crash switch and it's wiring that kills electric fuel pumps etc.

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

Dunno ... but of all the electrical troubles I've ever had, the base cause has been a corroded/loose/fecked earth strap ... ;)

Sounds plausible to me, or could it cause the immobiliser to kick in? I dunno, just thinking aloud.

Reply to
Paul - xxx

The biggest clue is in the lack of dash lights (but not having *any* Defender to hand I can't look at where the ignition power feed comes from) but it sounds a lot like a corroded master fusible link or dodgy connection in the main ignition feed.

Reply to
EMB

Hi

My 96 300tdi discovery developed the spider control unit fault which caused the stop for no apparent reason, could this be happening with yours? (Google: land rover spider control unit)

If it is, you can resolder the pcb like I did - never a problem again.

Regards

Tony Hackett

Reply to
Tony

Does the Defender have a spider?

Reply to
JacobH

Mine had hundreds :)

Reply to
Rich B

Brilliant! Thanks for all your help guys! I haven't fixed it yet, but now I've got lots of places to start looking :)

Reply to
asdf

I work for a roadside repair/breakdown company, and can do a quick translation for you.

He said - "That's great... as long as you got home ok"

He really meant - Well thanks for ringing and letting us know, you inconsiderate tw@. Its pissing down with rain, I've got 20 stranded motorists desperately awaiting my attention, and you're sat at home drinking coffee and keeping warm while I've just wasted an hour in the pissing down rain trying to find a vehicle that is now sat safely outside its owners house.

Reply to
SimonJ

Wrong, wrong, wrong... they always ring the mobile first (at least here),

*before* they attend the job to see if you still need assistance after a lengthy wait (in this case 2-3 hours). He just happened to drive past my breakdown location because the previous job was nearby. At most, he would have wasted 2-3 minutes. I'm so terribly sorry that I didn't include those details in the story, and caused you the inconvenience of typing your drivel :|

That's *why* I gave them my mobile number - so they could contact me should it be necessary... and I did *try* to let them know beforehand... The call waiting queue (I was informed by recorded voice) was 40 minutes, so I wasn't prepared to wait that long on a mobile phone until I could let them know that their services were no longer needed. Seems fair to me. I also *tried* to call them as soon as I got home... same deal.

...and btw... not interested in your half-arsed ill-informed opinions. Keep your loud mouth shut until you know the full circumstances, you p*llock.

With an attitude like that, and with your apparent total lack of a sense of humour, you are clearly in the wrong job.

Reply to
asdf

Oh, and thanks again to those folks that provided me with advice that lead to a fix! It's running sweet now.

Reply to
asdf

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