Avocet1

Well-Known Member
Hi All, My dad has just called. He'd been out in the Freelander this morning and it started fine, even though it was a few degrees below freezing. Now he's just tried starting it again (engine is still lukewarm) and it won't fire. It's cranking very slowly.

He's tried jump leads (albeit off a smaller car) and it's no different.

He's tried putting a jump lead from the battery negative to a good earth on the engine and that hasn't made any difference either.

Both battery leads are tight on the battery terminals.

With the ignition on, a multimeter is saying 12.4 Volts across the battery. When cranking, that goes down to 11.8 Volts.

The battery is an Exide, less than 2 years old, with a 4 year warranty.

All this is making me think it's the starter that's the problem? Are TD4 starters prone to failing? (2001 car with about 165,000 miles on it).

He's going to try a battery off another car, but in the meantime, I thought I'd ask whether there was anything else worth trying, please?
 
Hi All, My dad has just called. He'd been out in the Freelander this morning and it started fine, even though it was a few degrees below freezing. Now he's just tried starting it again (engine is still lukewarm) and it won't fire. It's cranking very slowly.

He's tried jump leads (albeit off a smaller car) and it's no different.

He's tried putting a jump lead from the battery negative to a good earth on the engine and that hasn't made any difference either.

Both battery leads are tight on the battery terminals.

With the ignition on, a multimeter is saying 12.4 Volts across the battery. When cranking, that goes down to 11.8 Volts.

The battery is an Exide, less than 2 years old, with a 4 year warranty.

All this is making me think it's the starter that's the problem? Are TD4 starters prone to failing? (2001 car with about 165,000 miles on it).

He's going to try a battery off another car, but in the meantime, I thought I'd ask whether there was anything else worth trying, please?

12.6 is a fully charged battery, at 12.4 is about 50 % charge.
11.8V is normal is the glowplug are working and you don't have a fully charged battery.
 
Slow cranking sounds like the starter solenoid contacts going high resistance.

Try several blips of starter with key. It may clean them off temporarily.

Another easy check is to clean the lucas spade connector on the starter that fires the solenoid. Also check heavy wire starter connections are tight. Beware and only do this with battery disconnected as the terminal is obviously live 12v all the time.
 
Thanks all. He tried another battery and it was no different, so he's going to take the starter off tomorrow.
 

Similar threads