My landy is having mood swings

Ok bear with me, while I try to explain this the best I can.

She basically has different moods (no, i havent gone mad lol)

One day, she will fire up and sound a bit lumpy idling, and generally not feel as smooth driving, and sound harsh when revving it)

On another day, she will start up, idle smoothly, and drive lovely and smoothly, be eager and willing to rev smoothly right up to the rev limiter

Take today for example, started her up seemed fine, pulled off, cough, splutter, no power and a load of grey smoke. 2 secs later, all cleared up and she surged forward.

Another thing thats going on is occasionally she gets very very delayed throttle response.

I've been doing 50 behind something on a dual carriageway, pulled out to overtake.. foot down.. nothing... nothing... 5 secs later, surges forward with very impressive acceleration.

Now also add to this the problem I had over winter which is obviously related where on some cold morning she would fire up, then die, then fire up and cough and splutter, and smoke everywhere with no power until after several miles driving to warm it up.

Im fairly sure the answer lies within an engine sensor somewhere, but before I go about trying to hook it up to a diagnostic machine, anyone got any clue what the problem might be?

It sounds like a classic case of LLRPMT (Lady Land Rover Pre-Menstrual Tension) to me. You may well have been one of the unlucky few customers who received a vehicle with womanly characteristics, a problem which was limited to a small number of vehicles manufactured on a predominately female occupied production line within the Gaydon facility. It might be worth your while contacting Land Rover to see if they can do anything under warranty, but I expect if it's a woman that you speak to, she'll just tell you to **** off.

On the other hand, it could be solid matter moving around in your fuel tank which is occasionally clogging up the bottom of the pickup pipe (fuel pump opening) or the fuel filter its self which is clogged. I'd also check your wiring loom for oil, check that there is no damp in the ECU and ensure that the air filter is clean. Have you been running it on veg oil at all or have you had the fuel filter off recently? I'm not sure whether or not the TD5 has a sedimenter, but if it has, it'd be worth checking that too. Another common problem with the TD5's is the Mass Air Flow Meter which is a sensor located somewhere along the air intake. Remove the electrical connector, clean both surfaces and then re-connect it, or fit an entirely new sensor and see if that helps.

-Pos