Restorer Pete
New Member
- Posts
- 2
- Location
- Lincolnshire
Hi everyone.
I am a newbie so excuse me if I am going over old ground with this subject.
I recently purchased a 2007 Freelander 2 TD4 XS with a few minor faults, but I enjoy bringing things back to how they were meant to be so I wasn't phased.
But so far it has been a steep learning curve, (cue knowing glances from more experienced members).
But now down to the subject in hand. I had this peculiar fault of the dash charging light on, but battery was getting a charge.
After reading forums until I was blue in the face, I eventually came across a mention of a blue wire going to a terminal on the alternator. This reminded me of the old days when there used to be a wire direct to the dash indicator, so made some sense. So today I decided to have a look.
First off you must always disconnect the negative terminal on the battery before you touch anything else electrical. To explain a little I am an electronics engineer, and this vehicle like all now is a computer on wheels, so you have to respect this, but also bring a bit of common sense to the problem too.
Many dealers plug in a diagnostics unit and expect it to tell them the fault, but this can only tell you a faulty component if everything else in the chain is in good order. Diagnostics combined with old school knowledge and common sense is the way to go.
To get to the wire in question is a bit of a nightmare, you have to remove the engine cover, followed by the fuel filter cover, and then disconnect the fuel filter pipes, and remove the fuel filter. Below the filter is a plastic catch plate which pulls off. It is also necessary for access to push the harness clip out of the metal filter cover so that you can remove it.
After all this you will see a thin blue wire plugged into the top of the alternator. The other end disappears into the wiring loom which is next to the dipstick, and directly below where the fuel filter sits.
This is where I found the problem........
The blue wire had disintegrated just where it comes out of the loom, and it had green residue on it. When I inspected the end of the broken wire, the copper had gone to powder inside the blue plastic outer, suggesting perhaps this started with a crack in the insulation, as there was nothing obvious for it to chaff on. I did note while I was doing this that the insulation had hardened also for maybe 4mm from the loom exit.
Of course to repair this is difficult if yours is the same as mine was, broken at the loom exit.
I had to carefully cut open the plastic loom cover to expose enough good wire to re connect the break.
Maybe 25mm cut, carefully pull the wire out enough to find good copper at the end. I used the heat of the soldering iron to make a nick in either side of the insulation to strip the end of the wire, as I couldn't get my wire strippers in there.
I slid some heat shrink over the wire from the alternator stripped the end of that, and soldered the two ends back together. Then covered the joint with the heatshrink and finished that part of the job by wrapping some tape over the opened loom to tidy it all up and keep the weather out.
Then I put it all back together, remembering to re connect the battery earth as the last job.
Now the nervous bit, started her up, and hey presto, no dash light. Job
done, phew......
After testing everything was o.k. I also was relieved to find that my mysterious hunting from the engine had stopped. I had previously noted that when I put the heating on auto and revved the engine, the tickover started hunting, but when I switched it to econ mode it went back to normal.
I am sure that there are many others out there with the same fault, and many sales of batteries and alternators as a result of wrong diagnosis, so I hope that my experience helps.
Thanks for reading
Restorer Pete
I am a newbie so excuse me if I am going over old ground with this subject.
I recently purchased a 2007 Freelander 2 TD4 XS with a few minor faults, but I enjoy bringing things back to how they were meant to be so I wasn't phased.
But so far it has been a steep learning curve, (cue knowing glances from more experienced members).
But now down to the subject in hand. I had this peculiar fault of the dash charging light on, but battery was getting a charge.
After reading forums until I was blue in the face, I eventually came across a mention of a blue wire going to a terminal on the alternator. This reminded me of the old days when there used to be a wire direct to the dash indicator, so made some sense. So today I decided to have a look.
First off you must always disconnect the negative terminal on the battery before you touch anything else electrical. To explain a little I am an electronics engineer, and this vehicle like all now is a computer on wheels, so you have to respect this, but also bring a bit of common sense to the problem too.
Many dealers plug in a diagnostics unit and expect it to tell them the fault, but this can only tell you a faulty component if everything else in the chain is in good order. Diagnostics combined with old school knowledge and common sense is the way to go.
To get to the wire in question is a bit of a nightmare, you have to remove the engine cover, followed by the fuel filter cover, and then disconnect the fuel filter pipes, and remove the fuel filter. Below the filter is a plastic catch plate which pulls off. It is also necessary for access to push the harness clip out of the metal filter cover so that you can remove it.
After all this you will see a thin blue wire plugged into the top of the alternator. The other end disappears into the wiring loom which is next to the dipstick, and directly below where the fuel filter sits.
This is where I found the problem........
The blue wire had disintegrated just where it comes out of the loom, and it had green residue on it. When I inspected the end of the broken wire, the copper had gone to powder inside the blue plastic outer, suggesting perhaps this started with a crack in the insulation, as there was nothing obvious for it to chaff on. I did note while I was doing this that the insulation had hardened also for maybe 4mm from the loom exit.
Of course to repair this is difficult if yours is the same as mine was, broken at the loom exit.
I had to carefully cut open the plastic loom cover to expose enough good wire to re connect the break.
Maybe 25mm cut, carefully pull the wire out enough to find good copper at the end. I used the heat of the soldering iron to make a nick in either side of the insulation to strip the end of the wire, as I couldn't get my wire strippers in there.
I slid some heat shrink over the wire from the alternator stripped the end of that, and soldered the two ends back together. Then covered the joint with the heatshrink and finished that part of the job by wrapping some tape over the opened loom to tidy it all up and keep the weather out.
Then I put it all back together, remembering to re connect the battery earth as the last job.
Now the nervous bit, started her up, and hey presto, no dash light. Job
done, phew......
After testing everything was o.k. I also was relieved to find that my mysterious hunting from the engine had stopped. I had previously noted that when I put the heating on auto and revved the engine, the tickover started hunting, but when I switched it to econ mode it went back to normal.
I am sure that there are many others out there with the same fault, and many sales of batteries and alternators as a result of wrong diagnosis, so I hope that my experience helps.
Thanks for reading
Restorer Pete
