L-series Freelander Non-starter

After 130k of very reliable motoring my 2000m.y. Xedi freelander refused to start this morning. Engine cranks but no sign of firing. I'm baffled because she always fires instantly hot or cold and was running fine when she was parked a day or two ago. I've checked glow plug relay, all belts were renewed 34k miles ago and there's plenty of fuel. There has been no sign of trouble developing and I'm at a loss to know where to start looking. Any help with methodical trouble shooting would be warmly received!
cheers!
Happyhippo

Immobiliser maybe?


DD

spray a touch of easy start in, see what happens

Kaboom

After pratting about all morning testing stuff that didn't need testing, found that the fuel bulb was soft. After pumping up pressure she fired up as normal. Now why should the fuel system lose pressure? Anybody know what normally stops fuel ptressure leaking away?
Happyhippo

Have a read of this

Things to check when you get your new 2.0 L-Series Diesel home! - MG-Rover.org Forums

it may help

check leak off pipes ,pipe connection on return side ,priming bulb

Spot on! Fuel was leaking from the return pipes from the injectors. One was quite a bad leak the others less so. I had been getting a whiff of diesel from time to time and had noticed what I thought was an oil leak on the undertray. There's a moral there somewhere. As soon as I removed the noise attenuator, it was obvious. Fortunately I had a length of similar fabric covered rubber hose in my tool box from which I cut lengths to replace all the return hoses. It's probably worth checking yours if you have a similar L-series as all will be at least 12 years old by now. Hippo happy again