We were drivng along towing our caravan when our Discovery just lost power and all of this black smoke started coming out of the exhaust. We turned the engine off and then turned it back on and it started right away and on we travelled. Our mechanic scanned the computer and it indicated the number 1 injector had stayed open. We have now lost power and re-started quite a few times since - always on long journeys. The last time it took a while for the car to re-start. Does anyone have any ideas what we should do to fix this problem? Thank you for your time and hopefully any solutions.
Lost power / injector open
- Thread starter MickSally
- Start date
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Shifty1962
Well-Known Member
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- 4,209
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- The Winchester Club - Englandshire
The error code logged in the ECU does not indicate the injector has physically stuck open but that the injector electrical circuit is open circuit (or disconnected to normal peeps). The ECU would not know about it as it only monitors the spill solenoid. The error logged may be a symptom of oil in the injector harness or worse oil in the loom to the ECU. Pull off the ECU plugs and have a look for traces of oil. If so it will only get worse until you need to clean or change the wiring loom.
If one of the TD5 injectors was physically stuck open I would expect this to show as black smoke because you would effectively be over fueling that cylinder with non atomised fuel and getting unburnt fuel into the exhaust manifold - hence the smoke. You could potentially fill the cylinder with diesel and "hydraulic lock" the engine as the fuel pump feeds a constant 60psi to the injectors.
If the spill solenoid was constantly open then the injector would not fire as it would not be able to build enough pressure to lift the injector nozzle tip from its seat against the internal spring. You would see this as an engine misfire but without any black smoke as no fuel would be getting to the cylinder.
Whatever the cause I'd say you need to sort this before it causes expensive damage to your engine.
If one of the TD5 injectors was physically stuck open I would expect this to show as black smoke because you would effectively be over fueling that cylinder with non atomised fuel and getting unburnt fuel into the exhaust manifold - hence the smoke. You could potentially fill the cylinder with diesel and "hydraulic lock" the engine as the fuel pump feeds a constant 60psi to the injectors.
If the spill solenoid was constantly open then the injector would not fire as it would not be able to build enough pressure to lift the injector nozzle tip from its seat against the internal spring. You would see this as an engine misfire but without any black smoke as no fuel would be getting to the cylinder.
Whatever the cause I'd say you need to sort this before it causes expensive damage to your engine.
