Hi, please see below the fuel pump relay and wiring from my 160,000 mile 2005 TD5 Defender, symptoms were sluggish up hills and poor starting, thought I had oil in the wiring loom again but turns out to be a burnt out fuel pump relay – any ideas if this is just 'one of those things' or is it an early warning of fuel pump failure (Still on my original pump) – thoughts appreciated.

Thanks - Gary

www.tyclyd.com

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Gary - what happened with you burnt/overheated fuel pump relay? Did you ever get to the bottom of it? I think my 2006 Td5 has the same issue. I'm just doing the research now.
Cheers
Steve

Hi Guys

I have got the same problem with my Defender TD5 2006 : what did you find out?

either pump pulling too much current, or loose or contaminated relay contacts
or burnt relay

Those yellow relays don't seem to be terribly good quality. I've replaced mine, plus the female socket it goes into, and that was only after 50 odd thousand miles. If I was in this position again I'd replace the relay and socket first and see if there's any improvement before replacing the pump as the latter is usually quite dear. The other thing to bear in mind is the poor quality of cabling in late model TD5s. The insulation on the wire could easily have chafed and cracked somewhere between the relay and the pump and be shorting.

Brown said:

Those yellow relays don't seem to be terribly good quality. I've replaced mine, plus the female socket it goes into, and that was only after 50 odd thousand miles. If I was in this position again I'd replace the relay and socket first and see if there's any improvement before replacing the pump as the latter is usually quite dear. The other thing to bear in mind is the poor quality of cabling in late model TD5s. The insulation on the wire could easily have chafed and cracked somewhere between the relay and the pump and be shorting.

Click to expand...

Hi Brown, I realise your post was a while ago now, but do know where to source the 'female sockets' for the under seat relays?

jonthedon89 said:

Hi Brown, I realise your post was a while ago now, but do know where to source the 'female sockets' for the under seat relays?

Click to expand...

When I got my TD5 a number of the underseat relays were just loose and were attached to the wiring loom with female spade connectors. Later I realised that from the factory there would have been relay holders which went on the tabs on the side of the underseat compartment. I bought some basic relay holders off Ebay and put them on, attaching them to the inside of the seat box with self tapping screws. Then at the start of 2015 I experienced a major electronic failure which ended up with the ecu, the immobiliser and the wiring loom being replaced, so the new wiring loom has the right female connectors on the ends, with a slot in them to fit on the tabs on the inside of the seat box. So now I'm nearly back to standard in that respect. I should have looked under the driver's seat when I was looking at it on the dealer's forecourt. I crawled underneath and wobbled all the suspension and drivetrain and had a good look for rust, but somehow neglected the seatbox where all the electrical stuff was.