Defender 90 TD5 Hunting in Idle (HELP)

Hi,

firstly, forgive me as I am a complete novice.

Just bought my first Defender at 19, its been my dream car since I was about 5 when my mum had one.
All great until yesterday I heard a change in the noise of the engine in Idle. Also a lack of acceleration power in all gears and the ride is kind of bumpy in low gears, jolty?. The gear stick shakes aggressively whilst in all gears, but didn't before (only vibrated in neutral). I think this all came about after we had torrential rain and I was tearing through huge puddles and drenching the Defender. Or at least this was the last thing I did, before starting the car up again later that night to pop out and noticed the changes.

So, I have taken it to my local garage and a Kwik Fit. My local suggested the Defender sounds like its hunting in Idle. and a full service and change of all oils in gearbox is necessary to flush out the issues, then go from there. However, going from there...will cost me around £420.00 he says. Kiwi fit basically just told me the truth and said they're unsure and would suggest I look through some forums then take it to a specialist.

Does anyone out there have any ideas of what the issue may be and how to fix it and what costs it might average at?.

Any help is appreciated!.

Thanks,

FS

Welcome. Oh dear. For starters do not pay a garage £420 just to dick around with oil changing.It sounds like you have water in the fuel system somehow. Landys and big puddles aren't infallible. Suggest you post this in the defender section of the forum. You need to bleed the system in the right places. I'm not a diesel expert. Someone will have some advice. Try to sort it yourself if you can park off the public highway. Its the way to learn and it'll save you money. If you have to go to a garage try to find an independent landy garage who know the engines.

Hi John,

I have now posted it in the Defender 90, 110, 130 section, just now hoping someone will reply! Once I have more info I can look into solving the problem myself.
Thank you for you help!

first off, open air box in engine bay to check for any water being ingested into the engine, if dry , start checking common td5 faults.
under drivers seat, pull the red plug off the ecu and check for oil contamination, if its there the injector loom needs changing that can cause all sorts of running issues, but isnt a big job to fix,