Defender cut out

I was wondering if anyone could help me!!

I have a 2002 Land Rover Defender 110 and she's done around 190,000 miles - good going I know!

However, recently when I start her up, after about 15 seconds she will cut out and then go dead for about 2 minutes before springing to life again. I took it to a specialist garage who couldn't find any faults with it at all and it was ok again for about 2 months. Yesterday, the exact same happened and the engine just cut out after about 15 seconds and it went dead. This happened 3 or 4 times and then didn't happen again. (This only happens when the vehicle is idle).

The only thing I could possibly think of is the immobiliser as the immobiliser light flashes on the dashboard when the engine is off or it could be related to the column switch. They're my 2 bright ideas.

Has anyone experienced the same and could comment on what it could be?

Many thanks

Hi Jj
Just read your post with interest. An intermittent fail is so frustrating and I recently had one on one of my motors.
I found it very useful to use a witness light or buzzer rigged to the wiring circuit in question to determine whether the feed had disappeared when it cuts out. You can place them at various places along the circuit as long as you know where each one is . Does this make sense?

Hi,
Yes this makes sense, I might have to look into that. I still think it may be something to do with the immobiliser.

Many thanks

I've had a couple of issues which have led to intermittent cutting out on a TD5. One is oil in the injector loom. On a Defender where the ECU is a long way from the engine under the seat it will take ages to get as far as the red plug, but it's worth a look at the multiplug where it goes into the cylinder head. Should be nice and dry I hope. The other was to do with fuel feed. It helps if the fuel circuits are nice and tight and there's no chance of anything leaking. I've had one do this where it turned out that the inner rubber washer on the fuel filter had got rucked up somehow as it was being tightened and wasn't making a good seal. A similar problem on a friend's TD5 turned out to be the stuffing in the fuel filter canister having shifted and got wadded up against the holes. Serves him right for letting someone put Britpart filters on his car.

So there's a couple of items that are relatively easy to check.

Thank you very much Brown,

massive help and I will look into those straight away.

Cheers

Check the yellow relays under the drivers seat next to the ecu. If they are loose or corroded they might cause this. Does your temp gauge go into the red when it wont start?

Landy is completely dead now. Nothing happens on switch 1 or 2, completely dead. No lights on the dashboard or anything. Can't unlock the car using the key fob so have to use the key manually which usually sets the alarm off but because it's dead the alarm won't sound.

The battery is fine and charged, had a guy come and look at it but he had absolutely no idea what it could be.

It's a mystery!!!

Hi jj
Are you any good tracing wires from a wiring diagram using a circuit tester lamp?
I think this is what you need to be doing and ticking off where there is power on the drawing. This process would reveal the problem.
If this isn’t your bag I would recommend you call an auto electrician who will carry out the above process.

Hi,
Yea I'm not very talented at this sort of thing so I'm going to try and get it booked into a land rover specialist this week and let them have a fiddle around.

FIXED!!!
Took her to a land rover garage (RST) in Mersea and they found that the wire connecting the battery and fuse box was faulty with a dry joint.
A simple case of replacing the wire and she is back up and running good as new!
Thanks for all your help and suggestions!

Yay !