here's a strange one for all you sparkies

got in my 83 110, it has a 93 200tdi fitted and has always been a very good starter. All ignition lights came on and the heater fan, tried to start then everything went dead, as if there was no battery. Thought at first it was the main 80amp fuse so got a couple of friends to push me off, 1st gear, clutch down, ignition on, it started to try to fire and then all the lights came on, I stopped and started it normally. only thing amiss is the fuse (single)to the indicators( hazards still worked) fuel level, stop lights had blown, changed the fuse and all OK. The things I have checked are, battery connections, connections on the ignition switch and the main fuse. All OK. I did fit a new starter and ignition switch about 4/5 months ago thats why I double checked the ignition. Any ideas? electrics certainly are not my strong point and this is now bugging me, a few other lads also.
cheers

Loose connection on the battery at all?

Earths, check the other end of the negative to the chassis and earth straps to engine....well,that's what's present on mine. Disconnect clean them up to get a good connection with bare metal and I cover in grease to buy time until the next time....others may do differently. Even if it isn't these points it's worth doing anyway

Clean all the earths first. Other than that it could be the starter solenoid, or in my case the ignition switch. Check also by trying to turn over with headlights on (see if they dim when trying to turn over)

On the Discovery it wouldn't start (or even try) because the earth from starer was so bad, cleaned and it fired right up.

On the Defender, it needed a shove (or tow in gear) before firing up. Changing my ignition switch has seemed to sort the problem.

Fuses don't blow for no reason. You may have earth issues but you must also have a short somewhere. Probably wire damaged around the ignition or poor connections heating. Could also be your ignition switch failing again.

I'll go with ss00k on this. Worth checking the actual battery terminals by giving them a healthy 'wiggle' as I had one that came loose inside the battery casing ( IYSWIM ).

Hi all,
thanks for the tips, I was thinking it was somthing ignition related again. I'll have another good luck around the switch to see if I've trapped any wire's. Its still a strange series of events to me, to go from all OK to completly dead then as were pushing it off it comes back to life again. There is no real way of knowing how/when the fuse went I can only say it was all OK before and that after getting it going, it was the only thing amiss. The one thing I have noticed though is that the last 10years or so OEM parts are getting poorer all the time. About a year ago we fitted 3 Britpart fuel pumps for a series 3 before they sent us one that worked. Genuine parts seems to be the answer now, its a shame though OEM used to be just as good.

dinger189 said:

Hi all,
thanks for the tips, I was thinking it was somthing ignition related again. I'll have another good luck around the switch to see if I've trapped any wire's. Its still a strange series of events to me, to go from all OK to completly dead then as were pushing it off it comes back to life again. There is no real way of knowing how/when the fuse went I can only say it was all OK before and that after getting it going, it was the only thing amiss. The one thing I have noticed though is that the last 10years or so OEM parts are getting poorer all the time. About a year ago we fitted 3 Britpart fuel pumps for a series 3 before they sent us one that worked. Genuine parts seems to be the answer now, its a shame though OEM used to be just as good.

Click to expand...

I've had no issue with Bearmach Parts as yet, they're a valid option besides genuine.

Allmakes are ok for things like door seals etc as better than britpart but still cheap.

dinger189 said:

The one thing I have noticed though is that the last 10years or so OEM parts are getting poorer all the time. About a year ago we fitted 3 Britpart fuel pumps for a series 3 before they sent us one that worked. Genuine parts seems to be the answer now, its a shame though OEM used to be just as good.

Click to expand...

OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) are fine, genuine is only OEM in a landrover box with a 50% markup for their logo on the box.

PATTERN parts (which unless "G" suffixed) are generally all not great, no matter who they are from.

so with the series 3 pump OEM & Genuine would have been Bosch or Lucas (dont know which the S3 used) and pattern would be "compatible"