What did you use to earth the plug during the test? They draw a massive amount of current so the return path from the plug is very important. Not sure if they're actually supposed to get to a glowing state within a couple of seconds though.

Shouldn't that be an "Audrey Two" not a Three? See who gets the reference. The later models always looked quite pretty in light silver! The filter is supposed to be there and open on a TD4 iirc - something to do with the turbo actuator, someone more clever than me will be along in a minute.

Someone has seriously been screwing around electrically with that car, if it were me I'd be looking for a similar age scrap model and harvesting the clean looms out of it. You'll never be able to trust it even if you think you've got 100% of the wiring back to stock, there may be other stuff...

Did a spot of digging, the rattler 259D is a remote start system, that bank of relays look like a set of bypasses for the rest of the electrical system. That loom has been majorly hacked up!

There's a thin rubberised coating on 'em - try soaking them in warm soapy water overnight and using a soft dish scouring pad. If that fails, brake cleaner should pull it off...

There does seem to be a bit of a difference in supermarket vs premium, but it's quite interesting. On petrol: My first car used to run like a three legged dog on ASDA fuel, put it in once because it was cheap and it just freaked out. The difference in the K powered cars between cheap crap and...

Sorry, just read the first post and responded. Something odd going on there... 0.01V drop is negligible but it's moving around with different loads. Does the freelander go neg terminal -> body -> engine? that would explain it and make the figures look fine.

Voltage, not ohms :)

If it's running at idle fine and not spluttering I don't think the ecu is fried. It sounds like an earth fault. Do you have a voltmeter? If the earth wiring is fried, weird things can happen. Switch everything on and then measure the voltage from the battery negative terminal (the metal...

Double check what parts Mr Clutch use... They did a job on one of my minibuses a month before I bought it and two months later I was underneath it dropping a gearbox onto my stomach. Beware substandard parts.

If it's been twitching around it sounds like it was on it's way out anyway. Sounds like a failed thermostat/dodgy sender to me...

Does it do it in any gear? I guess it could be either the HDC or TCS but if its doing it in any gear it may well be the TCS. The only thing that would cause it in normal programming would be if it suddenly lost signal from both back wheel sensors. Would assume the front wheels were spinning and...

I don't think I've ever disconnected the battery while doing a HG change. Unless it was in the way, but I don't make a habit out of it. Then again, I'm not prone to leaving tools in places that can be dangerous. That being said, accidents do happen so usually at the first bang/clonk/rattle...

Yup. **** happens though.

He thought he'd finished, missed the locking key.

Ahh maaaaaan. That's a bit of sh!t luck right there. Know anyone with a boroscope to have a look at the valves? There's not going to be a lot you can do about it at this point - the head will probably have to come back off. Try timing it and see if it'll run? If one of the valves is bent...

Hose routing? Double check everything goes where its supposed to? Does all of the radiator get hot?

Also, you could have gotten a duff drivers door catch, try unplugging that separately and see if the clunking stops!

Pull the lock switch out of the dash and unplug it, see if it stops? Likely to be the only other thing if you've already changed the drivers door lock mechanism.

Can be a bit awkward lifting the alternator in and out but in the grand scheme of things, as Nodge says, very easy.