Td4 Rattle and stutter under load - SOLVED

If you know nothing about cars - then I think it is worth pointing out that you should DEFINITELY NOT get your fingers (or any other bodily part) anywhere near the belt area when the engine is running - they will get caught up and cut off by the belts! Similarly - don't poke anything near that area with the engine running or leave things in the engine bay to be caught up once the engine starts!

Here's an update.

One week ago I poured a double dose of fuel cleaner into a new 50liter tank of quality Shell diesel. The car has since driven 100 miles, and is driving ALOT smoother and quieter.

However, once fully warm, I can get quite a bit of rattling (and still a bit of tugging, but not as much) when I'm applying soft throttle passing through 2000 revs. It generally doesn't happen below this, and generally I notice nothing once above 2500 - 3000 revs. It idles smoothly, and when not applying throttle at these revs there are no symptoms. When stationary I can replicate the sound by revving it up though.

Next steps:
1. I've cancelled the LR timing chain replacement service for now and will continue to work to fix the problem by following everything fuel & airflow related.
2. I've ordered new silicone air intake and intercooler hoses off of ebay (from DPHSport). I ordered these since I often hear whistling when the turbo engages and suspect air is escaping somewhere despite my best efforts of tightening the existing hoses
3. I've booked the car in to a diesel specialist for a injector check up

get yourself some of these. I have some, they work wonders in locating rattles. However I dont put them near belts for obvious reasons but you can discount different bearings using them.

lol
Or do it the old and tested way (with hair and vital bits out of the way) - use a long screwdriver flat or cross head
Touch the tip on the area to check and put the handle against your ear.
Works perfectly and has been used for donkeys years... but, I am a tight git ...

(well actually I am not as I have a 6 channel electronic audio stethoscope but for most jobs I use the long screwdriver - it works a treat. )

Old tight git in Portugal

I had a very rare Nissan Sylvia 2.0 DOHC, the chain on that was very noisy. As has been pointed out it was only noisy on tick over. ran like that for several years before a friend I sold it too had to scrap it as parts were only available from Nissan and it needed discs, pads all round and rear Calipers. Just the parts were more than the car was worth. It was one seriously fast car though.

I have used the screw driver but I do find the steth an improvement.

Lowbank said:

I have used the screw driver but I do find the steth an improvement.

Click to expand...

You probably used a left handed screwdriver ..... .. rookie mistake

Another thing to do would be to change oil and filter, run 500 miles, then do again.
This is a good way of cleaning the internals. Do not be tempted to use any diesel engine flush magic potions though. Just 2 good quality oil changes.

Glad to hear your making progress.
Mike

If injector cleaner has started to make a difference, then it's the likely cause
Put another dose of cleaner through it and run it again. It could take a few hundred miles to clean them completely.

also when you have cleaned the injectors try to find the best diesel you can but cheap rubbish does them no good, as I the old days I use a long screw driver for listening but I also use my hollow alloy walking sticks now they are good and long as well , if you do look at your drive pulley stop the engine and look down with a torch if you see what I call fairy dust then it is on it way out what the fair dust really is, is metal filings and with a torch you will see them easily

teddywood1 said:

also when you have cleaned the injectors try to find the best diesel you can but cheap rubbish does them no good, as I the old days I use a long screw driver for listening but I also use my hollow alloy walking sticks now they are good and long as well , if you do look at your drive pulley stop the engine and look down with a torch if you see what I call fairy dust then it is on it way out what the fair dust really is, is metal filings and with a torch you will see them easily

Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip. Checked for any play, and dust on the drive pulley. All seems to be in order there luckily.

To provide an update on this issue - the issue is SOLVED without any big dramas.

The root cause must have been as simple as dirty injectors due to frequent short trips (which the car is mostly used for), possibly encouraged by some dirty fuel. All I've done to resolve the issue 100% is use up a full bottle of fuel cleaner additive (spread across 2 full tanks instead of the recommended 4ish), and replace the diesel filter.

Thanks all for your active advice, and encouraging me to pursue other avenues than what was recommended by the dealer, who would have left me £3000 worse off with a new drive chain and not resolution to the problem!

Great news

Please post the video of when you tell the dealer that the £3K repair they booked you in for was fixed with a bottle of injector cleaner !

This thread described all the very same issues I am experiencing on my Freelander 1 td4 2006. But this has happened (apparently) different reasons given the info I have to date.

In short the car started to have a massive loss of power, but there was no clicking or knocking sound from the engine. Basically the car had no power when accelerating (so it didn't respond as expected), engine often stuttered on start, at time didn't start or took forever as if it wasn't receiving enough fuel (but checking the fuel line, filters and pumps was all working in order), a few time the engine turned off by itself as if fuel didn't get to the engine.

A tech who works on injection system and turbines advised me to change both the Common Rail Fuel Pressure sensor and the harness that connects said sensor to the ECU.

I was able to find the sensor at a local car part store but not the harness so I changed that first... the car worked even better than before, but that lasted just about 3 weeks... until now where I have the same issue described by the original poster of this thread.

What I suspect though is that there might be an issue with the harness that needs to be changed (as the tech told me) so that if any wire or contact on that harness is oxidized, corroded or damaged in any way (hence leading to the malfunction) replacing such harness should make the issue go away. This suspicion is backed also by the fact that when I brought it to my buddy who is a mechanic and who told me that the noise was being caused by injectors not operating correctly, I asked him to re-seat the connector plugged into the fuel pressure sensor at the end of the common rail "flute" and after he did that the problem went away... albeit for a short period of time and came back later in the day (probably due to vibrations causing the electrical connection failing again after it had been "fixed" after the re-seating of the connector.

I'm currently awaiting to receive the new harness I was able to find online (finally in stock where I got other parts for the freelander 1) and will post an update once I'll have it replaced (and hopefully that solve the current issues )

Thanks for the continued sharing of all your experiences and learnings on this forum!

Cheers!