Starting issues

Hi Everyone

I have to be honest and I'm a wee bit low today...Landy has certainly been testing my mental health! I've worked on her constantly since I got her (2000 TD5 90) about 5-6 years ago. Pretty much a total rebuild initially and then a rolling restoration over this time.

Last month she passed the MOT with no advisories (she initially failed on emissions and manefold leak but I sorted both). Then when I was out I got the dreaded "click" from the starter. Now I've been here before, a couple of years back and changed the starter and the connector to the wee tab on it and all good upto now. So this time changed the wee connector but didnt help and then just changed the starter. All sorted.

Literally the same day she just wouldnt start, never had this problem before, always first click of the key. Anyhoo put in a gallon as she was very low on diesel and just bumped her and she fired up, went to filling station left her runnning (I know) and filled her up. Went home next day same thing just winding over and over. Took the battery off, recharged it and put on this morning and first turn of the key she starts. Went to Dunkeld and back (about 30 miles) to give her a run and she went like a dream. I popped into my mates garage and he knows landy inside and out as i use his ramps etc on a Saturday, and he said " I bet she wont start when u switch her off and leave her for 5 minutes" - guess what he was correct. Just turne over. He says that he had a TD5 in last year and it was the injectors, same symptoms. He has suggested that we get the injectors out and send them away for a refurb as he uses a good company in Birmingham he uses.

I have a PSCAN diagnostic thing iI use but for some reason its not connecting and my mate doesnt have a nancom (even tho he literally has every other bit of diagnostic stuff) so we dont want to go down the new injectors route as we cant recode them.

Anyway I just wondered if anyone had any ideas of even agree with the diagnostics - 'm pretty hacked off atm , I know thats part of Landy ownership but Ive just had a series of things that have beaten me (changed the fuel filter housing and fuel pump and currently on my second fuel pump due to the noise of them).

I'm off to Broughty Ferry beach with the dogs now and had planned on lovely run in landy but now im going in my electric car - thats all I need to say, and I cant believe my wife talked me off the edge went I was ranting about parting ways with her (Landy not the wife!)

Cheers

Stumpy

I wouldn't be presuming it's the injectors without diagnostics, seems like an expensive guess to me.
With regards to fuel pump are you fitting cheap ones or VDO ones?
A duff starter will affect the cps and make it hard to start, once stared it would run fine, mine did anyway.
Surely faulty injectors it would run badly.

If changing the starter and the wee tab then the battery all fixed the problem (albeit temporarily), my money would be on a electrical issue rather an injectors. It will be interesting to see what a Nanocom says.

Have you cleaned the earths? I had similar symptoms on my Tdi recently which were sorted by new battery earths to the body and chassis. My previous Td5 disco had difficulty starting due to a leak from the fuel pipes from the fuel pump too which also let air into the system so worth checking these.

Yeah Ill check both of these things. Regarding the air in the system I do think that this may be an issue, as I changed the fuel filter housing and as my fuel pump was noisy I bit the bullet and put on a genuine one. However that was screaming so sent it back and was found to be faulty so I just got a cheap £85 and stuck that on. Both were quiet for 24 hours and then went loud (see separate post on this), so I changed the fuel lines from the fuel filter housing to the pump but made no difference.

I dont have access to a nanocom so thats a pain. I agree about air in the system (pump noise) but theres not fuel leak so u wud think that there would be diesel leaking on the floor at some point.

As well as injectors, there can be intermittent faults with the ECU. I had one that would start the car only when it felt like it. Eventually this deteriorated to being functional only around 1 time in 10. Mine also has been known to cut out and fail to start when there's oil in the injector loom plug. Most people seem to report rough running with this but mine just stops working. If it won't communicate with the ECU using a diagnostic device that has previously worked fine, it may be the ECU is on the way out. On the other hand, as I'm sure you know, the TD5 ECU isn't fully OBD compliant. It was designed before this became fully standardised across manufacturers. It usually needs something specific like a Nanocom to access the full range of readings and functions.