Freelander 1.8 won't start

Hi. Hope sombody can help as am at wits end. I have a problem with 1999 freelander.. just will not start. I have checked fuel pressure and is ok, pulled plugs and cranked and spark is good. Then pulled out injectors and cranked, with pressure guage attached in fuel line. Pressure remains constant at about 50psi but injectors only fire for a short time then stop. Does the immobilser system cut power to injectors? Car used to chirp when doors were first unlocked, until key was inserted and turned on. That stopped a while ago, but car still ran. I suspect immobiliser may be the cause, but hope someone has had similar issues and can offer some insight.

Hi again everybody. I take it you all as stumped as me! Just an update of what is going on. I have managed to find the emergency key code and entered it as directed. The alarm light does all its supposed to do so assume code has been accepted, but still no joy. The car fires briefly but will not run. The chirping sound when doors are unlocked has not come back either. Anybody know how to bypass the immobiliser so we can make sure that is what it is? I am in remote part of Mozambique, so no access to parts to swop out or specialist diagnostics.... have tried generic diagnostic machine here, but can't get a read... any ideas welcome!!

Hi Krc, I would expect you to not have been able to fire it up at all if the immobiliser had kicked in. There is an inertia switch in the engine bay attached to the firewall as on my 2000 1.8, think yours would be same, but again, this wouldn't be the issue, very unlikely, if you can already fire it up. Did you or anyone put back the timing belt on it? Secondly, I understand you carried out several tests, but did you run a compression test on each individual cylinder?

Hi Niccage. Thanks for the response.... I have been off line for a few days ( the joys of living in remote Africa!!). Yes . I did do a compression test. My guage is a bit buggered, but all cylinders showing about equal pressue (around 160psi if the guage is to be believed). Have tried disconnecting inertia switch, bridging it, hitting it,,, no luck. What gets me is that the power to the injectors cuts out after a short period of cranking. I read somewhere in the huge amount of stuff I have managed to find that the immobiliser system cuts fuel after about 5 seconds.... but cannot find whether it cuts off power to the fuel pump ( which does not happen in my case) or to the injectors (which is my issue). Anybody able to shed some light here?? I also read that the injectors use the earth (negative) to cut off power. If I were to isolate the negative ti the injectors and run a wire direct to battery negative would that bypass the immobiliser and allow the car to start? And would that cook the ecu?? A bit scared to try it as the nearest replacement ecu is probably there in England.

krc said:

Hi Niccage. Thanks for the response.... I have been off line for a few days ( the joys of living in remote Africa!!). Yes . I did do a compression test. My guage is a bit buggered, but all cylinders showing about equal pressue (around 160psi if the guage is to be believed). Have tried disconnecting inertia switch, bridging it, hitting it,,, no luck. What gets me is that the power to the injectors cuts out after a short period of cranking. I read somewhere in the huge amount of stuff I have managed to find that the immobiliser system cuts fuel after about 5 seconds.... but cannot find whether it cuts off power to the fuel pump ( which does not happen in my case) or to the injectors (which is my issue). Anybody able to shed some light here?? I also read that the injectors use the earth (negative) to cut off power. If I were to isolate the negative ti the injectors and run a wire direct to battery negative would that bypass the immobiliser and allow the car to start? And would that cook the ecu?? A bit scared to try it as the nearest replacement ecu is probably there in England.

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No

If your not getting fuel crank sensor or cam sensor can cause non start.
If you have cam sensor fault some vehicles will bump start eg:- vauxhall opel

As above, can you confirm your crank and cam sensor are Ok? The situation you describe, i.e- cuts out immediately after starting, would be the case if you had either of these sensor/s fail. I was going to ask if you have a bad spark plug but you say you did a compression test and all showed up good but that your compression test gauge isn't 100? The reason i stress on this is that i saw a 1.8 Freelander in 2012 with the exact same symptoms as you describe and this is what happened. The guy was changing the timing belt and happy he thought he put the belt back correctly, he went ahead and cranked it, it tried to start, then made a massive "boom" then died. Attempts to crank it after that repeatedly failed with the exact same symptoms as you. What happened was that 2 of the exhaust valves had been damaged when the pistons rose due to incorrect timing having been set. This is an interference engine which means valves can be damaged if attempts to start it with incorrect timing. Will usually mean cylinder head off and replacement of damaged valves. Prior to this issue, you or someone else didn't just put the timing belt back on did you?

just a small thing the buzzing sound means you key fob battery is low
put a new battery in and see how it goes
j

Hi and thanks for the responses. The chirping due to key fob battery being low I did find elsewhere as well, but thanks anyway... was confused as had done it from the day we got the vehicle, about five years ago, and key fob only failed to open doors a while ago.... did then change battery but did not connect the dots as to why noise had stopped!!

I have checked the timing and all ok there, belt was changed a long time ago so do not suspect a fault with that, or with valves as compression about the same on all cylinders.

The crank and cam sensors I am not sure about.. will have to check those, but spark is good and continuous from plugs, so think cam sensor should be ok as that supplies spark timing??? Just to clarify, the car does not actually start, only fires briefly. As I said, I have had the plugs and injectors out and cranked the engine with them out and a pressure guage in the fuel line. The plugs continue sparking and fuel pressure remains good, but injectors stop injecting after a few seconds. I would expect that if it was crank or cam sensor then it would not inject at all?

Anyway, thanks for the response, and any further input welcome.... will try do some more research into the crank and cam sensors.

krc said:

Hi. Hope sombody can help as am at wits end. I have a problem with 1999 freelander.. just will not start. I have checked fuel pressure and is ok, pulled plugs and cranked and spark is good. Then pulled out injectors and cranked, with pressure guage attached in fuel line. Pressure remains constant at about 50psi but injectors only fire for a short time then stop. Does the immobilser system cut power to injectors? Car used to chirp when doors were first unlocked, until key was inserted and turned on. That stopped a while ago, but car still ran. I suspect immobiliser may be the cause, but hope someone has had similar issues and can offer some insight.

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Yeah, I've experienced life with a 99'er myself...and she's now SORNED and awaiting a scrapie' to come and take her away. I did contact a vet and ask if he could use a bolt gun on her, but it was cost prohibitive quite frankly, so hence the scrapie.
I feel for your plight as a consequence, and as such strongly advise that you ditch/sell it on/set fire to it as soon as possible and spare yourself a whole feckin' mess of inevitable heartache.