Defender 90

occasionally when I start my 2007 defender it is very sluggish turning over kinda like having very little charge in the battery. Other times it starts no bother. Any ideas guys?

Do you give the glowplugs a chance to hear for a bit?

Took me a while to work out on my '88 Defender

Dodgy earth strap or iffy connection between battery and starter would be my first thoughts

A jump lead from battery -ve to engine block would confirm bad earth if it cures it

Always wait till the glow plug light is off before starting.
Only does it very occasionally maybe once twice a week at most.

Glow plugs won't give symptoms like a poor battery.

Poor live connections on the main battery to starter feed or bad earth will and are often intermittant

Cheers bud, I'll check that out.

theGman-ftd said:

very little charge in the battery.

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This would be my first port of call. Is the battery good? And does it hold a charge?

Had problems with the starter solenoid on my old Series III. Sometimes it would start, sometimes it would turn over too slow. If I shorted the solenoid it would start, pointing towards a bad solenoid. I think I could only get a combined starter/solenoid in those days....don't know if it has changed.

300bhp/ton said:

This would be my first port of call. Is the battery good? And does it hold a charge?

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Yip batteries fine, just struggles to start occasionally but does always start.

If its the original battery (8-9 years old) it will be coming towards the end of its life anyway so its not necessarily blame free