Defender 90 cutting out now dead !

Hi, I have a defender 90 300tdi, all fine until yesterday about 10mins into a journey radio cut out then about 200yards further on the engine cut out (as if run out of fuel) small amount of smoke which appears to come from engine / behind dash. Unable to start it, tried to jump no luck, started towing it out of te road and was able to start it as it was rolling down the hill! Drove back fine now when try to turn if over totally dead - had battery checked and fine, radio fine.
2 days ago took out thermostat as not opening fully and had read as temp measure you can remove that to allow free flow so don't know if this has anything to do with it? Help ! I am stumped !

At the moment wondering if the starter motor got stuck on and burnt out?

lots of things, i'd be checking my wiring for shorts first, you don't want a leccy fire.

If your saying there was smoke from behind your dash start there, looks for any obvious signs of melted wires.

Get a multi meter and just check everything,
If your more worried about your engine not running just bypass the whole loom and put a live to stop solenoid/ fuel pump, and then 12v onto starter till it fires then remove the live from the starter ( obviously ) It should run like this, then you have the fun job of tracing wires back until you find one melted or damaged..

Sound like a leccy issue somewhere, I'd trace back from the stop solenoid, as that requires a live to allow fuel though, and is earthed to the enigne, so if you're engine has cut out that soon after your radio, your engine may have had just enough fuel past the solenoid to keep you going for a small distance...
And as the others have said; I'd also check where you saw the smoke coming from, as that's a pretty sure sign of something shorting out... Normally smells quiet bad of melting plastic. Look for blackened wires, melted connectors etc...
Might be worthwhile checking other electrics to see if they work, not 100% on landy loom as I've not had many electrical problems yet... but wipers, lights etc.. as you could then rule those out!

Hope this helps! And good luck! Electric problems are the worst! Give me a noisy bearing any day!

Zach.

Thanks guys really appreciate the help !

So far I have discovered the following :
When it cut out I was actually using the wrong key...! Turns out I picked up my other key and that somehow (worryingly) started my landy! However now I hve discovered te startmotor has burnt out - likely due to using wrong key?! And can't find any other elec issues ATM ! So current state of pay is get a new starter motor an then see what happens ! Have looked at and tested all electrics is can think of and all fine and it drives when bump started just dead if try and start off battery/starter motor ! Still not 100% sure why the whole thing cut out if it was a burn out of starter motor and now runs fine (once get it started) ?

loopylu said:

Thanks guys really appreciate the help !

So far I have discovered the following :
When it cut out I was actually using the wrong key...! Turns out I picked up my other key and that somehow (worryingly) started my landy! However now I hve discovered te startmotor has burnt out - likely due to using wrong key?! And can't find any other elec issues ATM ! So current state of pay is get a new starter motor an then see what happens ! Have looked at and tested all electrics is can think of and all fine and it drives when bump started just dead if try and start off battery/starter motor ! Still not 100% sure why the whole thing cut out if it was a burn out of starter motor and now runs fine (once get it started) ?

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if you think using a different key would make the starter motor burn out, then maybe ask for a second opinion

have a good look at the heavy wires that go to the starter and your battery, just incase it shorted.

I would have a good check over the wiring before fitting your starter motor, dash out takes no time just to check everything's ok if smoke came from there.
Using wrong key, screwdriver, hair clip etc to start the landy won't do damage haha that's normal.
Like it was said above check the starter motor wiring and follow it back, could be chaffing somewhere and take out your new starter too.