Smell of Diesel from engine

Hi all, Im new to this forum and also new to Landrovers. I have just bought my first Freelander 2Ltr 2005 Diesel - manual and I am looking for some advice -today when I arrived at work I noticed a strong diesel smell from the front of the car and on leaving work I noticed a patch of diesel/oil under the front of the car. When I got home my OH has searched and looked all over the engine bay and he cannot find anything with any obvious splatters of diesel/oil, he also looked under the engine bay but as there is a plastic cover, could not see much in the dark but it was wet in the middle at the back of the plastic cover. Do you guys have any ideas what this could be? We have bought it second hand from a garage and we will be phoning them in the morning as we have only had it 12 days but it would be nice if you could give us some ideas what we should be looking for?

Many Thanks

tetleyteadan said:

Hi all, Im new to this forum and also new to Landrovers. I have just bought my first Freelander 2Ltr 2005 Diesel - manual and I am looking for some advice -today when I arrived at work I noticed a strong diesel smell from the front of the car and on leaving work I noticed a patch of diesel/oil under the front of the car. When I got home my OH has searched and looked all over the engine bay and he cannot find anything with any obvious splatters of diesel/oil, he also looked under the engine bay but as there is a plastic cover, could not see much in the dark but it was wet in the middle at the back of the plastic cover. Do you guys have any ideas what this could be? We have bought it second hand from a garage and we will be phoning them in the morning as we have only had it 12 days but it would be nice if you could give us some ideas what we should be looking for?

Many Thanks

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Injector leak off pipes

Hi Ratty, thanks for your reply.

You will have to remove the undertray . I tried searching LZ freelander page and had to resort to gooooogling and I found this http://www.nikrivers.com/freelander-td4/oil-and-filter-renewal .Simple once you've removed it the first time .

:welcome2:

From experience I have had a similar experience after servicing and it all stems from fitting that dreadful design of an air filter. What happened was when I serviced mine I done the crank case breather filter as well (very important often overlooked and well covered in the forum) and its a fiddly job fitting the airfilter housing on again you either get lucky and hit it the first time or spend a little time and keep swearing at it! Sorry diversing here anyway to fit the crank case breather filter requires the removal of deisel spiller pipes and although I checked they were on tight when I re assembled the whole thing the obvious fiddling with that air filter must have loosened one. Which result in a desiel smell in the cabin, smoke coming from the os front and a mess on my driveway once I stopped. If you take off the plastic engine sound deadening cover you will see the injector spill pipes etc and most likely the diesel spillage. good luck. I dont know why old irish refers to an oil change issue and removal of the belly pan,but whilst on the subject I have never found the removal a big issue although I have thought of cutting an inspection port and placing a simplified cover on it to gain access to the sump bung save removal of the belly pan.

Hi Just Billy - interested in your reply as it has just been serviced and had the filters changed.

failing that it could be a loose injector just check down the tube to see if there is any diesle there or even worse it has turned into black rock

There's a good chance it could be the high pressure fuel pump.
Usual culprit is leaking from one of the piston covers when the engine is cold and then sealing itself as soon as the pump gets warm.
A new seal kit can be bought...although you need to remove the pump to do this using a timing chain lock down tool.
Been covered on here if you search......I think it was Andy McIntyre although I may have spelt his name wrongly.