Freelander 2 (LR2) Freely wouldn't start but now does

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Spanky2k

Member
Posts
11
Hey all,

I have a bit of a weird one with our 57 reg LR2.

First a bit of background, in case it helps: We were hardly using the car up until a few months ago, as in, I'd maybe drive it on a short trip once a month. The battery went flat and it sat flat for about a month, which ended up killing the battery entirely. Got RAC out, they replaced the battery and it was running fine. We've since been using it much more frequently (back down to one car now) and in the first few weeks of regular use, the engine would misfire occasionally and conked out a couple of times, immediately starting up straight after without issue. After some reading around, I decided to try a BG244 diesel fuel system cleaner and it seemed to have worked; no misfires or anything.

So, all was well until today. My wife had a meeting across town this morning and drove there and back without issues (about a 1 hour drive each way). She had to head out about half an hour after getting back (so the car was still warm) and the car simply wouldn't start. It would turn over just fine for ages but simply wouldn't start, saying a message along the lines of "reduced engine performance". After a while, I noticed that it was saying the fuel tank was empty and it was warning that it was low on fuel. I knew this wasn't the case as I topped it up a few days ago.

My guess was that there was something wrong with the fuel line or fuel pump or something and so I called the RAC out to have a look. They got here just over an hour later and when they went to test it, it started up absolutely fine first try. There were six codes for all kinds of things on the system but none of them made any sense in regards to the issue and the RAC guy said that they couldn't all be current as the car wouldn't be working with all of them, so he believed they were historical. He looked all around the car, took the engine cover off and checked everything he could think of and it all looked fine. We turned it off and on a number of times and it was all fine.

I'm worried that it will happen again and we don't have any other options right now other than relying on this car so I'd like to try to work out what the issue was and if there's anything I can do to stop it happening in the future.
 
Diesel fuel filter maybe playing up, or it could be a injectors leaking, get a leak back test done, and all the faults cleared so if it happens again you will have an up to date reading of the fault, which may help with pin pointing the problem.
 
It could be dirty fuel, it could be faulty low pressure pump, partly blocked fuel filter, or crank sensor breaking down when hot
It needs to have a comprehensive diagnostic check
 
Thanks for your advice guys. It ended up conking out on the M25 again today at 70 with no hard shoulder. Luckily my wife got it started again and got it home but said it kept feeling like it was losing power. I've taken it to a local mechanic and have explained the issues (it even conked out again on the short trip there from home). Thinking about it, the issues with it conking out before stopped when I added the fuel system cleaner as I mentioned above but I topped the car up to full for the first time since then last week so the additive will be gone. So maybe it was hiding some issues. Anyway, hopefully I'll hear back soon from the mechanic and I'll update you all on here in case it helps someone else some day.
 
Heard back from the garage and they say that the error suggests it is the Crank Shaft Sensor so they're going to replace that. I'm kind of sceptical as I'm sure it's something to do with the fuel system but they're the experts so I'll see how it goes. Should be done by tomorrow. Hopefully it's all working by Friday - have a lot of driving to do Friday to Sunday!!

Edit: Update from a few days later and after a weekend away with a 3.5 hour trip each way. The car has run fine since getting it back after the crank shaft sensor got changed. Hopefully it'll stay this way and we won't have any more issues!
 
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