Loss of revs! Is this a common issue?

My 1999 1.8 petrol suddenly started to lose revs when I tried to accelerate on the motorway the other day. It felt just like it did the time when I ran out of petrol - except I had 1/3 of a tank! At first I thought my car was overheating because when I pulled in everything was rather toasty nder the bonnet - but after leaving it to cool it went on its way again fine.

Since then it has happened a couple of times - always on long journeys and, interestingly, always when I have half a tank or less of petrol.

I know my cooling fan definitely isn't working (it's not a fuse so I think it's the thermostat) but I'm wondering whether it's a fuel issue. Overheating shouldn't make the car behave like that should it??

Any help would be greatly appreciated! I'm just starting to learn about the pleasures (and many pains) of freelandering.

Lisa

When was the fuel filter changed last?

Otherwise I'd say its the fuel pump.

Get your cooling sorted sooner rather than later too.

I have no idea when it was changed - only owned her for a couple of months. So far I think i've been lucky i've only had to deal with a new master cylinder for hydraulics. Thanks for your suggestions though - I will get the filter checked/changed and hope that does the job!

Love your defender by the way - my next adventure is to purchase one of those bad boys!

I had the exact same symptoms as you describe. Turned out to be the wiring connector block on the top of the fuel pump. Corroded over the years, and began to randomly fail. Cleaned, squirt of WD40, job done.
Hope this helps,
Russ

Russell Jupp said:

I had the exact same symptoms as you describe. Turned out to be the wiring connector block on the top of the fuel pump. Corroded over the years, and began to randomly fail. Cleaned, squirt of WD40, job done.
Hope this helps,
Russ

Click to expand...

Your right a bad electrical conection will produce similar symptoms, but as you yourself pointed out your pump was failling randomly.
You'll notice the fault on Lisa's car is a bit more predictable, ergo very unlikely to be an electrical fault.