L322 TD6 Starting/Stalling Issues

Hi guys,

New to the l322 and definitely new to the diseasel world (swore I'd never buy an oil burner) so hoping for some advice. It's a 2006 L322 TD6 3.0.

I bought the truck about 8 weeks ago with a known starting problem. This was quickly pinned down to a dodgy crank sensor and cam sensor. Replaced both these and it has ran fine for the last 7 weeks now.

That was until yesterday. Started the car in the morning and instead of cranking and firing pretty much instantly, it took about 5 seconds. Drove fine for about 5 minutes then stalled on me. Then took about 5 minutes to get it started again. New crank sensor goes in that I bought as a spare. Fires up fine.

Go out this morning. Same thing happens, in almost the same place give or take a hundred metres or so.

This time I pop the bonnet and notice the clear bit of fuel line after the filter is full of air bubbles, or should that be the air has a few fuel bubbles in it?

Turn the ignition on to prime the line and it takes about 5 minutes to bleed out and starts again with about 5 seconds of cranking. This is obviously what the problem is.

I should also add this is the first time since I've got the car and fixed the inital problem that it has been below 1/2 tank of fuel. Part of my brain thinks maybe an issue with the tank syphon setup sucking air through?

So does anyone know if there are any common issues that can cause this or am I better just biting the bullet and replacing the tank and secondary pump assemblies?

Thanks in advance

Pug

There is a transfer pump in the tank to pump from one side to the other if that has gone it can look like you have fuel but the side the pickup is in has not, open the fuel cap and have a listen for the pump running.

You could try filling the tank and see if you still get bubbles.

brianp38dse said:

There is a transfer pump in the tank to pump from one side to the other if that has gone it can look like you have fuel but the side the pickup is in has not, open the fuel cap and have a listen for the pump running.

Click to expand...

Thought it was an ejector pump where it uses a little fuel to drag the fuel from the non pumped side.

Will give that a try though as I guess the secondary pump would suck the fuel out through the tank pump and leave the other side full wouldn't it....

backinblack said:

You could try filling the tank and see if you still get bubbles.

Click to expand...

Filled up today. So bit early to see. If it behaves fine this week then at least It'll help narrow the problem down and I'll have to pretend I have a 50l fuel tank for a bit til I can get a new tank pump assy.

There are three pumps on the l322 intank transfer one, mid one under the car and the high pressure one on the engine.

Cheers

brianp38dse said:

There are three pumps on the l322 intank transfer one, mid one under the car and the high pressure one on the engine.

Click to expand...

Cheers, starting to look like it may be the tank mounted pump assembly. Filled up yesterday, sat for 16 hours and no air in the line and fired up straight away. Will keep an eye on it for the next few days though.

Just need to see if there's any readings in the dash data showing the levels in the 2 sides of the saddle tank to see if its emptying unevenly.

They're not ridiculous money though so may just buy one and fit it on spec. Will need to just keep the level high in the meantime as I need the car running for a couple of weeks. Fortunately no journeys planned that'll drop it below half tank.

Never seen anything that give that info. Be nice if there was though.

This explains a little. (from the manual)

The electrical fuel pump is located inside the fuel tank in the left hand side of the tank.
The pump transports fuel from the fuel swirl pot towards the "engine" and operates the syphon jet pumps in the left
and right sides of the tank. Both syphon jet pumps deliver fuel to the fuel swirl pot in the right side of the tank.
The pump is controlled by the ECM via the fuel pump relay.
Should the fuel pump electrical connection need to be disconnected, it is imperative that the ignition should be
switched off. If the ignition is on in any position the fuel gauge will memorise its last needle position prior to power
down. Once power is restored the gauge will display the last remembered position regardless of the actual level of
fuel in the tank. This could result in incorrect fuel gauge readings if the fuel tank has been drained and not filled worth
exactly the same quantity of fuel that was removed.

Well that's 6 shortish trips done today and every time it has started as expected and ran faultless by land rover standards so pretty safe to say it's an issue with the tank pump as it seems to be level related.

Will keep an eye on it but at this point pretty sure it's a done deal so will order a tank pump for when I have time to do it.

Thanks for the input guys, I appreciate it all.