2.5 dt not starting

Hello all.
Hope somebody can help. I have just bought another p38 !! I must be mad aint I ? It dosnt start, The engine turns over but dosnt even try to fire. There are no warning lights or messages on the dash. I must admit I havnt had chance to look at any thing yet. The bloke I bought it off said his autologic said that the alarm status was high and that there was a fault with the either the alarm or engine ecm. I thought if there was a fault it would say somthing on the dash. I am planning on having a better look at it tomorrow so any pointers would be gratefully recieved.
Cheers Luke

p38owner said:

Hello all.
Hope somebody can help. I have just bought another p38 !! I must be mad aint I ? It dosnt start, The engine turns over but dosnt even try to fire. There are no warning lights or messages on the dash. I must admit I havnt had chance to look at any thing yet. The bloke I bought it off said his autologic said that the alarm status was high and that there was a fault with the either the alarm or engine ecm. I thought if there was a fault it would say somthing on the dash. I am planning on having a better look at it tomorrow so any pointers would be gratefully received.
Cheers Luke

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If you get no luck you might want to post over at the rangerovers.net forum. I know for a fact some of the guys on there have diagnostic kit and might be able to help you more.

I know that a common problem on the petrol models is the BeCM loosing the correct security sync code with the engine ECM. This usually happens when a battery gradually goes flat over time and the symptoms of this are that there is no check engine light when you turn the ignition on. On the diesels this would be the injector light. Does that light up?? I would of thought if the guy had autologic he would of known about this though and tried a code re sync.

I dont really have a clue You will need to wait until someone who knows more about the diagnostic tools comes along or post over at the rangerovers.net site.

-Wills

Update :
The injector light comes on when you turn on the ignition and then goes out, There is power to the fuel stop solonoid. Fuel is pumped up to the injection pump. Does anyone know what readings I should get at the multi plug that goes to the injection pump ? If there is a fault with the becm can I replace it with one of off any 2.5 dt / dse ? Failing anything I can do, does anyone know of someone in the north cornwall area that could come to me and test with a test book ? Thanks again
Luke

p38owner said:

If there is a fault with the becm can I replace it with one of off any 2.5 dt / dse ?

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Yes BUT you will first need to make sure the new BeCM thats going in is fully working. Next, if its second hand, which I guess you are wanting it to be, you need to know the mileage of the vehicle it came off. If its a higher mileage than yours then when you goto turn on the ignition the mileage readout will change to the higher number on the message centre. So you might have a vehicle thats done 50k suddenly gain 50k miles and read 100k. If you then changed the old BeCM back in the higher mileage would be copied back from the instrument binnacle and you would be stuck at 100k.

Not only that, when you replace the BeCM you will need to resync the BeCM with the engine ECU anyway, if you dont do that the vehicle will not start no matter what you do. You will also have problems with locking the vehicle with the remote etc. In short, you can do it but you really need a new or second hand 'unlocked' BeCM that can be programmed to the vehicle.

There are companies that repair the BeCM if its faulty, the one Ive heard good things about is MTechUK - Range rover Becm Repaired & Programmed at a fraction of the cost! but I guess that depends on how much you want to spend on getting the thing working.

Good luck and keep us posted with how its all going.

-Wills

Check the thin hoses going into the fuel filter. Had the same symptoms on my dse. Engine would turn over but wouldn't fire w/o any dash lights coming on. Felt as if no gas was getting in. Hoses were almost unplugged from the nipples letting in air in the system. easy check.

Hi rdb. Thanks for that but unfortunately its not gona be that simple !! Wills. Thankyou for the link to mtech, I spoke to them this morning and have since posted my becm and ecu off to them. Very helpfull on the phone and sound like they know what they are on about. Hopefuly will get them back on friday. Thanks again for your help and will keep you all updated.
Cheers Luke

Hi all.
Well i finally got it started. Sent the becm and engine ecu off to mtecuk, no faults were found. Mark at mtec was very helpfull and will definatley use him again. Really knows his stuff. He told me to check the battery voltage on cranking as the becm needs a good 12 volts to oppperate correctly. Found on cranking that the voltage was dropping right down even though the starter seemed to be swinging fairly well ( I had thought that the starter was a bit slow tho) Stripped the starter down and found that the bearing in the end cap was worn which was allowing the rotor to move over to the side and rub on the outer casing. As the bearing is only a bronze bush I had one made up by a local engineering firm, refitted starter and hey presto it started. Havnt had it running for more than a few seconds yet as there is no water in it as i pinched one of the water hoses for my other p38 !! So no doubt when i get it going there will be more problems to come. Thanks for everybodys help
Luke