Howdy Ya'll!

I'm a Yankee from across the pond, hoping to get some help with British made imported Land Rover Defender that belongs to a customer of mine.

I'm from Lewisburg, TN about an hours drive south of Nashville.

Have been sifting through various posts in the forum trying to figure out the issue for some time now, and it has definitely helped a lot thanking for for all of your knowledge. If I do not find what I am looking for after a bit more searching I will be making a post about the issue.

Thanks!

welcome............. what ya need help with?
Oh and you ain't a yank......... you is a Johnny Reb

Thor 1950 said:

welcome............. what ya need help with?
Oh and you ain't a yank......... you is a Johnny Reb

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Eee is what we call a Septic Tank, anyhoo howdy. Great to see the American enthusiasm for the ole rust bucket

Hello and welcome

Hello from a fellow 'Murican.
Sadly... lots of older Defenders getting bought here in the UK and shipped to the states.

Welcome to the forum

JUKE179r said:

Hello from a fellow 'Murican.
Sadly... lots of older Defenders getting bought here in the UK and shipped to the states.

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where you from in the states?

@Thor 1950 ... Chicago mate.

Is TN Tennessee?
Never could get my head around geography of the States

Welcome to LandyZone

@RangeRoller dt Yep, TN is Tennessee! Haha Don't worry I have no idea where anything is in England, have only visited once as a child!

@Thor 1950 Yep I am a Southerner born and raised, showing my ignorance, I thought Brits called all Americans Yanks!

So as for my problem, the Defender has a TDCi Puma TD4 according to the owner. I have been unable to find any identification numbers for the engine or the vehicle.

Turn the key on and only the hand brake light and battery light come on. Temperature spikes to overheating and stays there. Will not crank at all.

Owner says they have tried swapping instrument clusters from another vehicle and have replaced the ECU. Whether they got the correct ECU or not I am unsure.

What I have done after reading some forum posts:

- Changed battery and made sure connections were really tight.
- Tightened all relay connections under the seat, mine are under right hand side of vehicle, it is LHD.
- Cleaned all ground connections I could find: main cable at frame and tranny, two little cables from fender to frame and tranny to relays I believe, little stud on LH side of engine bay, and large white connector with a ton of ground points ending in it. All ground points seem to OHM back to the battery ground well.

I then followed a procedure I found enabling the starter with a piece of wire at the relay.

- Starter cranks when jumping across the relay.
- Grounded Black/Orange Wire at starter relay and I can crank the starter with the key, but no start.
- Jumped pins 3 and 4 with a paperclip at the instrument cluster plug and cranked, Black/Orange wire at relay grounded, still would not start.

I believe my ECU is immobilized? There is no key fob for the vehicle at all as far as I know.

Pulled the LH side speaker and I can see a greenish box back there with two plugs going into it. The box says ABS on it, is the immobilizer integrated into this or should be a separate box?

Thanks Guys!

Oh forgot to mention this issue first started occurring intermittently to the owner. He said he would pull a single 15amp fuse, mounted in a little holder all by itself, larger brown wire and Brown/Orange wire going into it, and put the fuse back in place. Something would reset and he would be on his way again.

Sounds a lot like a ringer to me. The TDci Puma engine shouldn't be in any Defender legally in the USA as far as I know. And sounds rather like it has been hacked to make it work. Does the owner know who did the work originally?

I am not sure, will have to find out.

It was originally owned by his brother in England. He says it is what is called a “Grey Import”

Old style body with a newer engine, to get around not being able to import it. It is kind of legal but kind of not! Haha

All the Puma stuff is Ford. I don't know for sure, but suspect there is an ECM and BECM plus immobiliser.

300bhp/ton said:

Sounds a lot like a ringer to me. The TDci Puma engine shouldn't be in any Defender legally in the USA as far as I know. And sounds rather like it has been hacked to make it work. Does the owner know who did the work originally?

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exactly correct