Help needed lads

This is about my 1996 Defender 90 300Tdi. It's been back on the road since June after spending over 2 yrs restoring it. A number of things have just happened which may, or may not be related, so please bear with me.
The old battery (can't remember how old) was put back on the vehicle after the rebuild. It worked fine, but I was expecting once the cold weather arrived it would struggle. Two weeks ago, one frosty morning, it struggled to start. I replaced it with a beasty 110Ah 760CCA unit.
All fine until this morning when I got a text from the tracker telling me it's power supply was being disconnected. It was -3 here the morning so my first thought was 'Mrs is struggling to start the Landy'! Called her and sure enough she told me the battery was flat
When I got home tonight I put it on charge and went in for tea. Thought, that thing could take 24 hours to charge up cos it's so big. Once I'd eaten I went out to see if the internal lights had been left on. The charger was showing fully charged, about an hour after I put it on . Ok, must be a dodgy earth though I thought I fitted them well and they haven't had time to corrode. Tried starting it and it turned and fired quickly and easily. BUT, ticking over really lumpy. It's never done that before . Lifted the bonnet to have a look and noticed oil on the side of the block behind egr valve area.

Had a look at the other side.

Had a look for the source of the oil.

The oil from the rocker cover looks a lot worse in the picture than real life. It doesn't look like it's enough to be supplying enough oil to cover both sides of the block - but I guess it must be.
So could this all be coincidence or linked?

• iffy battery/starting issue
• rough idle
• oil on both sides of block and rocker cover gasket leaking.

Can rocker gaskets break down or can they get pressurised and blow? Does the filler cap not relieve pressure? I'll go and see if any pressure can be felt with the cap off. There no oil in the expansion tank. Oil on dipstick looks normal, though down to bottom notch.
All suggested lines of investigation welcomed. Cheers.

I had a tracker on mine , one of those cheapies that sends you a text. I found it would kill the battery quite quickly compared to not having it fitted. Although we are talking a couple of weeks not overnight.

When it is having trouble starting, it it cranking ok, but not starting? or lazy cranking?

Have you done a parasitic drain test?

Cheers

Thanks neilly.
Just been out to check pressure from oil filler. Mrs started it and it started fine and ticked over as normal this time. No abnormal pressure at the filler.

This morning two very lazy turn overs then died.

How do you do a parasitic drain test? Sounds very useful!

Hi @AI2O3,

Best thing is to have a shufti here.

Quite easy to do.

Cheers

Cheer, mate. I'll have a look. Almost identical multi-meter to mine

OK,
Do not forget to swap the leads over, unless you like replacing fuses in the Multimeter .


Cheers

Have a good look at the earth straps matey, mine was a similar problem, gave earths a good clean both ends and cured it. May not be but worth checking.

neilly said:

OK,
Do not forget to swap the leads over, unless you like replacing fuses in the Multimeter .
Cheers

Click to expand...

Certainly will. That looks useful. I'm away first thing with work until Friday night, so it'll have to wait until the weekend.

Grezzer said:

Have a good look at the earth straps matey, mine was a similar problem, gave earths a good clean both ends and cured it. May not be but worth checking.

Click to expand...

I'll be doing that too. It was the first thing that crossed my mind when on the phone to the Mrs this morning. They should be fine, but as you say always worth checking.

Change the rocker cover seal and torque down to correct value (10Nm IIRC). If you have the standard cyclone filter / breather system that should vent normal crankcase pressure. Do the parasitic current test, don't be surprised if the current draw is reasonably high when you first connect up, things like internal lights come on and tracker battery starts recharging, radios etc also start up. Leave the meter connected for a minute or so and it will (should) drop down to a couple of milliamps but that may depend a lot on the tracker and any alarms etc that are fitted. Also check your alternator is producing the goods (around 14 volts at the battery terminals).
If your alternator is poorly that could also explain a flat battery for a couple reasons:
1. Not fully charging the battery
2. Rectifier pack could have a fault and be draining the battery when stopped (the current check will confirm that)

Lumpy start may be related to duff glow plug if it was cold and you have an accumulation of unburnt fuel in the cylinder after a failed start attempt.

Kwakerman said:

Change the rocker cover seal and torque down to correct value (10Nm IIRC). If you have the standard cyclone filter / breather system that should vent normal crankcase pressure. Do the parasitic current test, don't be surprised if the current draw is reasonably high when you first connect up, things like internal lights come on and tracker battery starts recharging, radios etc also start up. Leave the meter connected for a minute or so and it will (should) drop down to a couple of milliamps but that may depend a lot on the tracker and any alarms etc that are fitted. Also check your alternator is producing the goods (around 14 volts at the battery terminals).
If your alternator is poorly that could also explain a flat battery for a couple reasons:
1. Not fully charging the battery
2. Rectifier pack could have a fault and be draining the battery when stopped (the current check will confirm that)

Lumpy start may be related to duff glow plug if it was cold and you have an accumulation of unburnt fuel in the cylinder after a failed start attempt.

Click to expand...

Lots to be getting on with there, Kwakerman. Cheers. Forgot about the cyclone breather I can only assume that the rocker cover seal has broken down on it's own/age related. Mind you, as far as I know it's the original one at 177K !

It wasn't that cold tonight when I started it and it was lumpy so, hopefully, it was unburnt fuel from this morning. Early start on Saturday morning is on the cards. I am meant to be re-tiling the bathroom

I've explored a few of the things above today. Checked the 'parasitic draw' on the battery and it's showing 0.1 to 0.11 of an amp. This may be slightly high. You electrickery chaps might be able to tell me if I'm missing something in this list - I reckon it will be running the alarm/immobiliser, clock, tracker - anything else? Would that amount to 0.1 amp? By my calculations a 110Ah battery, if fully charged, would last for 45.8 days if it was supplying 0.1amp. I fully charged the battery on Tuesday night. The Landy has been stood since then and after doing the leakage test I tried to start her and all that happened was the starter solenoid clicked rapidly. I put it on charge and the 'fully charged' LED came on the charger at just over 2 hours! The Landy started then, but the battery didn't sound like a new 110Ah 760 CCA unit. It turned over ok, but wasn't spinning as I would expect. I suspect I've bought a faulty battery - what do you knowledgeable electrickery chaps think?

I've replaced the rocker cover seal. However, it looked ok. Should there be an 'O' ring type seal on the cyclone filter where it fits in to the rocker cover? I took it off a few months ago and if it had a seal it must have dropped off. I suspect the oil has been leaking from the cyclone filter joint.

In the meantime, I'm busy charging my old battery.

Hi,

Just a thought, but is there a chance your battery charger is not compatible with your battery. As I understand it some of the old battery charges do not handle the new (ie AGM ) batteries well. ( although I may be wrong)

Cheers

sounds like a poor battery , i was supplied 3 in a row recently
there is an o ring on the cyclone LLO100000

neilly said:

Hi,

Just a thought, but is there a chance your battery charger is not compatible with your battery. As I understand it some of the old battery charges do not handle the new (ie AGM ) batteries well. ( although I may be wrong)
Cheers

Click to expand...

Brand new charger, neilly. Bought it last week.

jamesmartin said:

sounds like a poor battery , i was supplied 3 in a row recently
there is an o ring on the cyclone LLO100000

Click to expand...

Cheers, James. I thought there must be an O ring there. It must have dropped off!
Yeah, I think the battery is goosed.