TD4 P0501 fault code

Hi hope all is well with you all. All been going well with my 05 TD4 apart from high pressure fuel pump died, but that's the way it is. My son had just bought a td4 04 with 85,000 on the clock. All was going well but now it has intermittent fault where the power drops off and obd2 code shows P0501 speed sensor fault. Any easy checks to undertake help resolve....?

Hi

Try to clean the connector of the speed sensor ... this sensor should outlast the car life ...
Power drops ? You mean electrical power or engine power ?

Alteredtech said:

Hi

Try to clean the connector of the speed sensor ... this sensor should outlast the car life ...
Power drops ? You mean electrical power or engine power ?

Click to expand...

Hi, it's the speed that drops when the engine management light comes on and has this code stored, once the light goes out the engine power\speed is fine

Sorry any pointers to where the speed sensor is located to allow me to clean it.

Does F1 not use the ABS sensors to gather vehicle speed? After so many drop (I think you need at least 2 working) the speedo stops working.

Similarly, if the ABS ECU fails, or gets no power (check F11 in engine bay) - you will get P0501...

https://www.landyzone.co.uk/land-rover/no-start-fixed-now-abs-fault.314925/

That was a definite case of P0501. There is another P0501 thread, but that was fixed by replacing injectors! ...

https://www.landyzone.co.uk/land-rover/freelander-td4-glow-plug-issue.351810/

GrumpyGel said:

Does F1 not use the ABS sensors to gather vehicle speed? After so many drop (I think you need at least 2 working) the speedo stops working.

Similarly, if the ABS ECU fails, or gets no power (check F11 in engine bay) - you will get P0501...

https://www.landyzone.co.uk/land-rover/freelander-td4-glow-plug-issue.351810/

Click to expand...

Freelander 1 with ABS use ABS sensors. So for the TD4 it use ABS sensors.
It could be FL11 ( 40A ) on the engine bay.
It could be a bad connection ...

But I don't understand why the engine goes in limp mode, there is no relation with the speed sensor. This could be a code that is stored a long time ago and never cleared.

For the engine management light, almost of the time there is no code, it could be anything in the fuel line including the injectors, the egr valve, turbo hoses ...

Alteredtech said:

Freelander 1 with ABS use ABS sensors. So for the TD4 it use ABS sensors.
It could be FL11 ( 40A ) on the engine bay.
It could be a bad connection ...

But I don't understand why the engine goes in limp mode, there is no relation with the speed sensor. This could a code that is stored a long time ago and never cleared.

For the engine management light, almost of the time there is no code it could be anything in the fuel line including the injectors, the egr valve, turbo hoses ...

Click to expand...

Yeh, I reckon there's a good possibility this has nothing to do with a speed sensor, as the link above found that replacing the injectors fixed it.

Not that its necessarily the injectors - as you say, something in the fuel delivery possibly.

I've seen this code on my SE before now.
I had a dodgy ignition switch, which I replaced and never saw the code again.
I put it down to the ignition shutting off momentarily, causing a gap in the data from the ABS ECM, triggering the code.
The code never appeared again after the ignition switch was replaced.

Thanks for all your help. You may be right as my son only bought the car in Bristol and drove it back to Cardiff area with no problems so may be the code has nothing to do with the lack of power speed that had happened twice at around 65mph. He's a bit gutted as he used all cash to buy the car but I supposed it's always a gamble. I have noticed the Egr has not been blanked off and is still original and not sure if crank case breather has been changed So will look at these to see if it helps. When I drove the car it seemed fine and the idle sounded OK but my son said it can be a bit lumpy when cold or warm so hopefully the usual mods may help... I'll keep you updated and thanks again for all the sound advice.