It done gone an' broke again...

Hi all,

So I'm new to this forum, new to Land Rovers but not exactly new to issues arising with my Defender. As far as the records say (which in my experience in Sudan, leave much to be desired) I have a Land Rover 110 Defender.

Before I start, I replaced the battery less than 2 months ago!

The first issue I have had is black smoke. It coughs out a cloud on starting up and on watching it, in low revs it chugs out a lot before reducing to almost nothing at higher revs.

The next issue is, the handbrake cable (if it is a cable?) snapped on me last Friday. I would like to blame the damn kids that were kicking around in the car prior to it doing that but I can't justify it... much.

The last, and most important issue I have, which may or may not be related to the above issues, is that the car wouldn't start this morning. At all, I turned the key in the ignition to warm up the plugs (no light though, so it's all guess work from me) and when I went to start, I had a few clicks and then nothing. Also mention, the ignition system was replaced along with the new battery as according to the "mechanics" here, that was the cause of the flat battery?

I tried it again, and heard no sounds. After a minute, tried it again and got one click. Opened the bonnet and it is coming from the top right of the engine compartment (if you are looking straight on at the car).

I know the descriptions are pretty dire, I'm not too familiar with cars and even with bikes, I'm good at pulling them apart and all too lazy putting it back together.

If anyone could shed any light on this subject BEFORE I give it to a "mechanic", just so I can reduce the bodge jobs I seem to get back from them all of the time (still have an issue with wiring but don't worry about that for now... unless it's related )

Thanks for reading and any help you can give!

Joe

P.S. "I say "mechanic" because they are in fact, not actually qualified as most 1st World Countries would see fit.

Could your battery issues maybe be the alternator failing to charge your battery? If you manage to get the engine running it will be easy enough to check.

Can't help on the rest sorry.

Put the headlights on for 5 minutes, if they stay fully bright then your battery is probably good and your starter is playing up, if the lights go dim in less than 5 minutes then the battery is flat.

Cheers for the advice. I'll check that out tomorrow. I had a feeling it wasn't the battery as such but something close to it! Just need to make sure the damn people understand that when they HOPEFULLY pick it up tomorrow!

Take a pic of the engine since there is a bit of confusion on the other thread

earth faults are a big issue on many landies ,you need to earth body ,chassis and transmission/engine to battery ,a jump lead set can be used to prove point by acting as extra earths ,could be hand brake cable issue too

Sounds although you hneed to cheak your earths, as JM suggested.

The battery/non starting and handbrake could all be connected to an earth fault. Many a Disco 1 had a similar fate where the handbrake becomes the Only earth to the engine (remember the transmission and engine are on rubber insulating mounts) The handbrake connects bodywork to the transmission. If this becomes your only earth the current draw on cranking will certainly damage or break the cable or at worse smoke and possibly catch fire.

Put a jump lead from the battery -ve directly to a metal part of the engine (avoiding any turning bits somewhere it will not get damaged or fall into anything) then try starting.

If this solves the problem then you need a new earth from the engine to chassis. and then you need to make sure the chassis to battery is in good working condition

Good luck

Just trying to upload a photo of the engine cover at the moment (40kbps download speed... 5kbps upload speed). I hadn't thought that the handbrake cable would be an earth? I'll make sure to mention that to them when they arrive!

Engine cover

Not sure if this helps at all...?

How many shredded wheat do you eat to tow start that fine 110 with that pull rope on the bull bar

thats a 300 tdi engine

Cheers THEengineer for solving that mystery for me! Now I better research the engines as I have no clue if that's good or bad

toby1963, ME pull it?! thats a pull rope for cars! Tried jump starting it once, three people pushing it, we got nothing. Never realised how heavy it was

300Tdi Engine is very good. Mines done 230.000 and still going strong.
It's like the very good 200Tdi but with a few improvements!!!