L Series Hissing non-starter

Cabbie said:

Whyb do you take bricks, cement and plasterboard on holiday? Is it a 'build your own chalet' thing?

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:doh:
I just knew someone would pick me up on that! thanks Cabbie!

Didnt take plasterboard on holiday, I decided to take the missus instead!

Darmain said:

Did he give any figures on what compression pressures he was getting. The L series isn't particularly high for a diesel. If it was fuelling but not igniting then there would be white smoke from the exhaust, but didn't you say you had no smoke.

As Ming says, check your fule lines first, no fuel, no splat!!

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(and thanks for the tips Ratty) Hi Darmain, its turning into an epic but things are not as serious at my garage thought. Picked it up from the garage. They had to put a new battery on it but still could not start it without easy start and told me to scrap it or get another lump. Wasn't convinced, a mate gave me a contact for a good mobile mechanic. Spent an hour and a half yesterday going over it then went off to chat to the diesel engine specialist (I used them once, it cost me an arm and a leg!), came back today an plugged a computer into it (no fault codes but the battery has been off so they would have cleared... he says), tried turning it over and it and it started first time (with pedal on the floor) engine ran fine. Admitted that he didn't do anything, gave me the card of the diesel firm and told me missus I could drop off £30 next time I passed his place.

Going to take it for a run around the block later. Let you know how I get on.

Laurence said:

:doh:
I just knew someone would pick me up on that! thanks Cabbie!

Didnt take plasterboard on holiday, I decided to take the missus instead!

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.....and no, it was not a close call!

Seems to me your problem is of the subtle variety.

I've just read through this thread and spotted something interesting. Maybe wrong but try this for size. Everytime you got your lump running it was after some exercise that severed the battery.

One thing that never seems to get raised on these threads is the ECU. Maybe it is just very reliable. Hoever, without it the engine won't run. It messes up so does the engine. The engine isn't complex at the end of the day and the number of man hours that experts have put in suggests there is little wrong with the power plant itself.

I'm an electronics systems engineer by trade and nearly found myself working for TRL, who develop diesel ECUs and Omnitec who do the diagnostic systems. Now I don't proclaim to be an expert on ECUs but I am familiar with microcontroller technology, which an ECU definately employs. It seems to me that your ECU has a question mark over it. If it is going intermittent, which can happen especially given its age, then you will be running round in circles trying to find the problem.

Your engine may infact be okay in body, but not in mind. The obvious solution is to try a differnt ECU. This may not be quite so straight forward as it sounds, as the ECU may need to be trained to drive 'your' engine. Certain software constants may need to be set. With luck they can be recovered from your current unit (which leads to the question of whether your unit may have lost its settings). Most ECUs can self train, so that at first the engine runs rough but improves as the ECU fine tunes itself to suit.

Changing the ECU is definately a specialist job.

Please recognise that I am making a generalised guesstimation here. I don't know the details of the L series ECU specifically but the general principles are clear. The main point is don't forget that 16 bit micro controller by the battery before you give up and reach for the matches.

Good luck.

Hi Darmain

I think you are right. Just got it started this afternoon (after taking the battery out and recharging). It took a squirt of false fuel, but left it running for a while then took it for a 5 mile drive including a bit of duel carriageway. Got to 75mph before I ran out of road. No hint of power-loss or lumpiness. Got back home had a coffee and tried it again, didn't exactly start first time (5-7 seconds), but took it for another run and started again while I was out.

So, compression is presumably ok, fuel is getting where it needs to, electrics are ok while it is running. Cant be much wrong with it surely. But, I bet it wont start in the morning. On a petrol engine I'd be drying out or replacing the HT leads at this point.

If it is the ECU can I just buy from a breaker? I had one replaced on an A4 after a flood, cost over £800. When it happened again a couple of years later I bought one from a breaker and put it in myself and it went fine. Was I just lucky?

I'm going to get up early and try to get it started for work. Lets see what a good long drive will do.

Last post on this honest, but just to close it. The problem just went away (for the most part). Drove over 500 miles over the following week with no problems whatsoever apart from losing water through the pin hole that reappeared in the rad that the garage "fixed" on the first visit. Second week started playing up when in slow moving traffic, never at speed, brief, very brief, power losses but pretty regular intervals and the engine light flashes on. But even then I had a day in the middle of the week where it ran perfectly (I drive around 70 miles a day round trip to work). Starts first time as it always used to.

So I still have a viable engine I think and will just make do for the minute.

Cheers all

Sounds to me like like the good old corroded connector problem. Leave well alone if its running but if the problem reoccurres then check all the connectors on the engine management system, that is unplug, check clean and replace.

Good luck and Happy Freelandering,

Dave