TD5 Starting Issues

Hello. Well I finally bought a defender after 3 freelanders! Its quite a rough and ready driving experience but i'm getting used to it and looking forward to some bad winter weather! ha ha

So.….. after buying the car a few months ago I decided to give it some TLC whilst it was warm and sunny. I've done a whole load of cosmetics to make it a little more comfortable inside and a bit newer outide. I also did the half shafts and wheel bearings, props, oils, filters and a few other bits and bobs mechanically. After changing the fuel filter I noticed it took a little longer to start and the battery lasted literally 2 or 3 cranks. The car would only start with a fully charged battery allowing the engine to crank fast. I fitted a new battery (big ass Bosch) which has improved things a little but still I find I cant start the car more than a 2 or 3 times in short succession before to battery loses enough power. I thought maybe glow plugs so I removed and tested them and sure enough all dead. Fitted a new set and now the glow plug light stays on for ages (well 8-10 secs anyway) whereas before it was on and off in a few seconds. It hasn't however improved the starting issue (might help when the cold winter weather comes though). I'm currently leaving the car plugged in at night on a trickle charger to keep it fully charged. My next step is the fit another fuel filter and see what happens but I thought I'd see if any of you guys had any ideas or suggestions?

Sounds like something is draining your battery, try disconnecting the glow plugs, pull the fuse or relay, (it may be them) and see if it starts ok, they may be sapping the power, I have never had to use them on my TD5 no matter how cold it is. Look on this site for finding a battery power drain and work through everything until you find what's causing it.

Changing the Fuel filter often seems to throw up problems, maybe you have checked this but the old centre seal on the filter can get left on the housing, so that when you screw the new one on you have two seals in the centre.
The filter mounting heads sometimes get porous, I took mine off and cleaned it tapped the threads out and put new copper washers on the stems and that seemed to help.
Do you hear the fuel pump whining when you turn the ignition on?

Thanks for the replies guys I'll check for battery drain and also check that filter seal today. Yes the pump definitely gives a whine now and I dont seem to remember hearing it so loud before? Maybe air is creeping back down the line when it sits for a while.

Marc-Manchester said:

Thanks for the replies guys I'll check for battery drain and also check that filter seal today. Yes the pump definitely gives a whine now and I dont seem to remember hearing it so loud before? Maybe air is creeping back down the line when it sits for a while.

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The pump whining usually means air in the system there are several threads on here relating to that if you do a quick search.
Just a thought but did you run a couple of purge cycles after you put the new filter on?

Marc-Manchester said:

Hello. Well I finally bought a defender after 3 freelanders! Its quite a rough and ready driving experience but i'm getting used to it and looking forward to some bad winter weather! ha ha

So.….. after buying the car a few months ago I decided to give it some TLC whilst it was warm and sunny. I've done a whole load of cosmetics to make it a little more comfortable inside and a bit newer outside. I also did the half shafts and wheel bearings, props, oils, filters and a few other bits and bobs mechanically. After changing the fuel filter I noticed it took a little longer to start and the battery lasted literally 2 or 3 cranks. The car would only start with a fully charged battery allowing the engine to crank fast. I fitted a new battery (big ass Bosch) which has improved things a little but still I find I cant start the car more than a 2 or 3 times in short succession before to battery loses enough power. I thought maybe glow plugs so I removed and tested them and sure enough all dead. Fitted a new set and now the glow plug light stays on for ages (well 8-10 secs anyway) whereas before it was on and off in a few seconds. It hasn't however improved the starting issue (might help when the cold winter weather comes though). I'm currently leaving the car plugged in at night on a trickle charger to keep it fully charged. My next step is the fit another fuel filter and see what happens but I thought I'd see if any of you guys had any ideas or suggestions?

Click to expand...

TD5's are a pig when it comes to air in the system. You did the fuel filter then this happened, from personal experience and other members experiences it could be a porous filter head, you have disturbed it and now it is letting in air, they sometimes crack - again the filter change may have worsened a small crack etc. did you carefully remove all the old filter seals if stuck and remove any residue or debris from the mating face of the filter head? Did you have to exert a fair amount of force on the old filter to remove it? Did you over-tighten your new filter which essentially squishes the seals to a point they no longer seal. Did you put the filter on with dry seals - this causes the seals to bunch up and fail.

Other issues can be that depending on which model you have there may or may not be a NRV on the return line - when this valve was not fitted vehicles had a terrible time with air in the system and diesel running back to a high return pipe in the tank that was in the air - the number of times I have seen a TD5 working absolutely fine, then someone changes the filter in good faith only for the thing to start acting up. In the last year alone, I have 4 had phone-calls from my local garage this year alone looking for advice on TD5's they have had issues with after a full service.

It's always been filter head, air in the system etc. On one occasion it was the in tank pump, the LP side wasn't working properly, until they broke the seal the HP system appeared to be keeping up and running the system OK - but after they created the big air void in the fuel system it never recovered again.

if several bleed cycles don't do the trick bleed at the return pipe where it goes to the fuel warmer. That has helped me more than once.