I've been driving a new-to-me 1999 Discovery 2 TD5 for about two months, manual transmission, and I've had a horrible time in city jams. The engine was just rebuilt prior to my purchasing, new heavy duty clutch and fuel air mixture adjusted after injector seals were replaced, but nevertheless I have had to slip the clutch whenever I've been going at low RPMs, especially when cold—but even when hot. It's been killer, and I've been killing this new clutch. My mechanics keep telling me to lay off the clutch, and I keep telling them there's nothing to be done about it—it will literally die on the slightest slope at slow speeds if I try to just go in 1st gear without slipping the clutch. So frustrating, I've driven manuals before—including a large box truck for work—and I knew something was wrong, but we haven't been able to pin it down.
After loads of researching and studying various possible causes of this, I decided to give a go at replacing both the non return valve in the fuel filter housing, and the air bleed valve. Ordered parts from the UK a month ago (I'm in Uganda) and finally got them and installed them today.
Wow.
I test drove up the bumpy, sloped driveway that leads out of my compound and the TD5 literally drove itself up the hill without me touching either the clutch or the accelerator! Zero hesitation. Zero puttering like it was about to die. It would have absolutely conked out previously without slipping the clutch constantly.
I am in awe. Those two little pieces are going to save my clutch, save my sanity and save my left calf that's been abused in torturously slow, uphill Kampala traffic jams.
For what it's worth, my mechanics had told me that they had just replaced the entire fuel filter housing, as well as fuel filter. Indeed it looked in decent shape. But they didn't know anything about these parts, because the non return valve—the black plastic piece with the rubber duck valve—was just not there. The white plastic piece on the existing air bleed valve was utterly gunked up too. Don't know if just one of the two pieces was the fix for my problem, but worth it to deal with both at the same time.
I have also had the "won't start in the morning with a quarter tank of fuel" problem, and I wonder if that will be gone now too...
Thus ends my contribution to the TD5 world.
After loads of researching and studying various possible causes of this, I decided to give a go at replacing both the non return valve in the fuel filter housing, and the air bleed valve. Ordered parts from the UK a month ago (I'm in Uganda) and finally got them and installed them today.
Wow.
I test drove up the bumpy, sloped driveway that leads out of my compound and the TD5 literally drove itself up the hill without me touching either the clutch or the accelerator! Zero hesitation. Zero puttering like it was about to die. It would have absolutely conked out previously without slipping the clutch constantly.
I am in awe. Those two little pieces are going to save my clutch, save my sanity and save my left calf that's been abused in torturously slow, uphill Kampala traffic jams.
For what it's worth, my mechanics had told me that they had just replaced the entire fuel filter housing, as well as fuel filter. Indeed it looked in decent shape. But they didn't know anything about these parts, because the non return valve—the black plastic piece with the rubber duck valve—was just not there. The white plastic piece on the existing air bleed valve was utterly gunked up too. Don't know if just one of the two pieces was the fix for my problem, but worth it to deal with both at the same time.
I have also had the "won't start in the morning with a quarter tank of fuel" problem, and I wonder if that will be gone now too...
Thus ends my contribution to the TD5 world.
