Disco 1 300Tdi manual, non EDC immobilised with the Missus in it :(

Hey chaps, I've got a rather distressed doris on the phone as my disco is stuck up on the hills about 8 miles from home at my boys school, as it just won't start.

She's got our 2 year old girl with her who is driving her mental - you just can't explain why the car won't go to a toddler!

The RAC is on the way, but not for a few hours yet and if he can't revive it it'll be recovered home where I get the fun all to myself
So... Where to begin?

It's a manual, non EDC, P reg 300tdi, with a two button fob. The headlights are a bit iffy at the moment, which is probably just the usual problems with the H4 plug, though they are LED units, (Edit: I should say I fitted halogen H4's again for a fortnight and had one go in the same way, but I thought the bulb had blown, so refitted the LEDs again, as I was just lazy by not putting them back in before) so I wouldn't have expected a problem with poor connections as they draw little power really - One lamp is very dim (never seen it like that before) and the other one is flickering when on sidelights. The main beam indicator in the dash is half lit when the lights are on, and if I flash the lights the spotlights stay on main beam as they're fed from the left hand H/light (the v dim one).
Now, I don't expect this is actually related to the immobiliser, but it's always worth mentioning all faults even if seemingly unrelated.

The Key fob seems to lock and unlock the car properly (I'm told) but it isn't cranking. The locked car symbol doesn't show when she tries to start it, I'm told.

As mentioned the car is non EDC, and a while back someone replied to me on a thread I might have another immobiliser issue - it might not have a spider, but something else which is a real ball ache to fix - I can't remember what it was though. I think StuRox posted that?

So, hopefully there's enough vague to go on there, and hopefully someone might be able to provide me with a good starting point when I get to look at it tonight (if RAC fail to get it going, which I'm expecting!)?!

Thanks for the help in advance chaps - if I don't respond this PM it's because I'm out with some students for work. Well, I say work - I'm taking them climbing!
TIA..

Forgot to say I can try another remote fob (bought a 2nd one from remote key a month or so back) when the car gets back home, but doubt it's that..

May be a complete red herring, but have you checked your earths recently?
not sure it will help , but running a good earth from chassis to engine block. A jumper cable could be a good substute.
Does the starter click when the key is turned?
Seems strange your fobs works but it will not crank over.

Good luck.

Thanks Neilly - I have checked them in the last 6 months and cleaned up a little, but they seemed ok. It's not even trying the starter from what she says - key turns and ...silence! :\

@ratty @blue beasty @fanatic @wiltshire landyman

I did think of posting in LZIR, but it's not that urgent
Thank you MHM

No gotta run and pretend to be a responsible adult! Will catch the replies (hopefully) later.

Cheers chaps

before you go into immobiliser things, especially that it can be unlocked with fob give a tug to the starter motor, check the fuse, relay and the small connector to the starter solenoid

If theres nothing its sounds like the battery is fooked ?

On my old 200tdi Defender the exciter wire on the starter motor used to fall off with monotonous regularity (every 3 months or so). OK no central locking or anything like that, but the symptoms sound similar. Everything lights up but there's not even a click from the starter motor. Push it back on the spade connector and everything was fine again. Bit of a pain to get at as it was underneath the turbo and everything had to be done by touch. Nor could one get a pair of pliers in there to nip things up.

Well...
The Doris tried a few different things and got nowhere, so after a friend of hers picked up the toddler, Doris went to sleep while waiting for the rentaclown man to arrive. When he finally pulled up, she had one last go at starting it, at which point it cranked but then the battery died very shortly after as she'd even charging her phone and listening to the stereo!

He found nothing wrong as predicted, and went off after getting it jump started.
It's been fine for the rest of the day.

Fecking typical eh?

I'm knackered, so I'm not going out to look at it now, but that does sound like a traditional immobiliser fault doesn't it?

Thanks for the replies btw...

it sounds more like bad contact at the battery clamps or starter, eventually dying battery to me

you can prove the issue by running a wire from ignition switch to starter solenoid,and seeing if injector pump solenoid clicks with ignition on/off if it cranks you have a problem with immobiliser or starter feed circuit

Was it a hot day when it happened??...... I had the same problem on mine, everytime it was a hot day and the temperature rose in the car it would never turn over until all the doors were opened and the temperature dropped inside

Basically the heat was distorting the circuits on the spider, I bypassed the spider and problem solved

But the battery is fine - if it was a dying battery you'd get some turning over or clicking, and wouldn't be able to run the stereo and charge a phone for 3hours. In this case it stopped the engine stone dead, until hours later when she had run the battery down and turned it over, and then the battery gave out...

No it wasn't hot today, or certainly not this morning at least! Good call though..

Thanks JM, unfortunately it never does it to me - only ever my wife! And by that I mean it's happened before but never for more than about 5 minutes (she tells me)...

then check the clamps to be well tightened and the starter main feed and solenoid contacts to rulr them out, a bad contact can let current through as long as the load is not too big... then if these are ok you can think to immobiliser

That is a symptom of a failing 'spider, immobiliser, unable to crank the engine but then being able to after 5 -10 minutes.
Maybe once a year at the start then monthly the then weekly and then finally the engine not starting at all or cutting out at speed.
So be prepared to provide a ignition switched supply to what ever circuit the failing spider has immobilised, for a tdi that could be just starter inhibit or fuelling or both.
You could of course go direct to the spider and fit a bypass, if you wish to take part of the dash apart.

this might help....http://forums.lr4x4.com/index.php?showtopic=86

The Mad Hat Man said:

anyone got the wiring diagram for the bypass?

Click to expand...

its easier to fit amr4956 or work out which wires at spider connector are igniton live ,and which wires feed starter solenoid and pump solenoid, also you need to earth starter relay, as it breaks that 2