Series 3 Diesel Idle Problem

Nice one, not much slower than the petrol if any. My one has an Ashcroft transfer box with higher high ratio, it is happy to do 65mph. Your overdrive should be about the same.

We normally notch up the hand throttle a couple of holes when it is cold. Soon warms up though and runs very smoothly like you say. I've never got it really hot or had any idle problems, we fitted a good salvaged radiator last summer so maybe you could check your cooling.

Remember there is absolutly no electics involved in the SIII diesel. My brothers Golf 1.9TD has a manual boost lever for cold weather, and its only a few years old. Yours sounds good to me, not that I'm any kind of expert though. Mechanics are usually amazed at how well our old 1973 diesel runs.

Have fun David

Well, my Series 3 diesel didn't have enough power for the overdrive to be much use. If yours has, then you're lucky.

That's what I used to do over the winter. From talking to others with diesels, it was pretty much agreed that the hand throttle was there so you could set it ticking over, go off and do stuff and then come back when it's warmed up a bit (and im my case, when the neighbour's garden is full of smoke).

Sounds like a good one then.

SNIP

Thanx for the advice guys sounds like I have a good one GRIN feel better now

Also found out the Merc diesel engine pump has a doodah that ups the idle speed automatically depending on the fuel viscosity ..... posh eh well it did cost £100 with 195k on the clock .... damn cleaver these Gerry's

Gromit

I used to run a S3 diesel 88 on the 109 wheels/tyres, which is fair way toward upping the gearing to overdrive-equivalent. Once or twice, with heavy loads, it did seem to struggle, but I think you are being a little unfair.

In my experience, diesels of the pre-electronic era do best with a slightly different driving technique. Try changing up at a bit higher revs than you would for a petrol engine.

A touch of hand throttle on a cold engine is certainly normal. Since the throttle linkage has to combine the two, it's worth checking the mechanism isn't sticking at that point. That is a problem I have had with tractors, and as I recall the linkage on a Land Rover is rather easier to get at.

Pulls like a train with the o/d in or out so I am happy it. was just the idle thing that was bugging me but i feel better now i know it is normal ..... if you can call anything from Solihull normal ..... and i live in Birmingham ..... I just know this is going to get me into trouble GRIN

Seems if there was difficult way of solving a simple problem the good old Rover Co would cast an ally one and do it the difficult way .... long time Rover nut speaking

Gromit

Should probably have specified that I was running on 7.50x16s, which as you say do up the gearing. Maybe that's why the overdrive wasn't so useful.

- Andrew

Could be...

The Haynes manual on the S3, which is one of the older, much more useful, instances of that brand, does mention a couple of gear-ratio variants, and I've sometimes wondered if there was some compensation for the wheel size in the gearbox/transfer box of a 109.

It's always seemed odd to me that the bigger, heavier, vehicle was apparently higher-geared.

That diesel S3 had apparently been used for launching inshore lifeboats, and succumbed to terminal chassis rot, one reason why I passed on an ex- Dutch lightweight. Diesel, good, Marines... Very nice people but don't buy a used Land Rover from them.

On or around Fri, 16 Apr 2004 19:00:28 +0100 (BST), snipped-for-privacy@zhochaka.demon.co.uk ("David G. Bell") enlightened us thusly:

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks recent Haynes books are barely worth the effort.