New landrover owner and in need of help?!

Hi,

I have recently brought a N reg diesal disco 2.5 (300 series I think) with 98 thousand on the clock. I brought the land rover for the sole purpose of towing up to 2 tonnes.

However, I have had a few problems with it. The garage is not the most helpful in the world and has lied to me several times. The land rover has already broken down on me twice (battery related) and has real issues with towing.

If towing on the flat - no problems. Come to a hill, different matter! In the area that I live there are some sizeable hills (although not anything like the Peak District!). As the landrover climbs the hill, you change up the gears to keep the revs up - fine, until 2nd gear. The revs start dropping off so that you are forced to change up to 1st. With the clutch fully out and foot to the floor, the revs still continue to die to the point that you think it is going to stall!

Luckily, it has not stalled with me yet, I have always managed to get to the top of the various hills that I climb on a regular basis but it is very stressful. (White knuckles!!) I have not dared to stop and try to start on the hill - I don't think that it would be able to! However, it severity of the revs dropping off like that varies and I have been unable to determine any common factor.

Is there anyone who has any ideas about what could be causing this issue and how it could be fixed?

__________________
E&I

Welcome....

Is the car kicking out smoke when under load..?

When was the air filter last changed..?

It may be advisable to give it a good service and feed it some fuel injection cleaner.... then give it a good thrashing.

A mate had one with the EGR valve stuck open - (smoked a bit!) - he just blanked it off and presto...!

jack

Hi Jack,

You were up late! Thank you for the reply.

I have not noticed huge amounts of smoke when under load. It was suposed to have been serviced when I brought it (Dec) and the engine sounds really good now that the breather pipe has been replaced.

When you say a good thrashing, what sort of revs are you talking about? (I'm a novice!) Above 3000?

Whats a EGR valve?

As ALWAYS with a diesel that runs out of steam, CHANGE THE FUEL FILTER.

While doing that make SURE the fuel lift pump is doing a good job.

90% of all power loss problems in automotive diesels is due to fuel starvation and most of that is caused by a clogged filter.

The fuel will flow fine in a dirty filter when not a lot is flowing, such as at light throttle and low revs, but as time passes and you have the pedal to the metal the fuel flow cannot keep up with demand, and the motor just dies out.

CharlesY

Also remember the disco I has 2 fuel filters - one in the engine bay that you replace every year and another underneath near the fuel tank that you need to clean every year.

You could have a split in a turbo pipe ,same happened to me i could have pushed up hill faster,sometimes its not visable split so have a good look.BE CAREFULL ! turbo gets Hot.

Do a search for 'EGR' or 'blanking plate' on this forum, if it hasn't already been blanked, get a blanking plate off ebay for about a fiver, do it anyway it's simple and very effective...

Hi All,

Thank you for the help/feed back. The next stage is to find the time to do these things!! Thank you again.

Cheers

It is also possible that your intercooler hoses are collapsing internally. Replace them with silicone ones - mine has already been done so I can't make a direct comparison, but the previous owner said it made quite a difference. As does taking the intercooler out and giving it a good clean out with an appropriate cleaner.

Matt

Hi,

All of this sounds expensive and I have never done any work on a car! Are all of these things fairly simple (like me!) to do? Would an investment in a manual be usefull? Are they any good?

Remove the fuel filter and fuel should be at top. If half way down you may have a air leak in pipes from tank. Bad for corroding

Just out of curiosity - is there anything that doesn't go wrong on a landy?!

can only think of 1 thing and that is the nut behind the wheel

Right, that promising then!

Do you have an independant Landy specialist near to you? It would not take them long to replace your fuel filter and remove and drain the fuel sedonometer bowl as these as already stated could be the likely culprits, then with the year of your Disco it does point to it having an egr valve fitted, this can easily be blanked off either by yourself or once again by the Landy man. What problem did you have with the garage that serviced your Disco?

I would definateley have a look at the intercooler pipes, as i had a similar problem, i had been doing around 70mph (officer!!!!!) came to a round about put my foot down and it wouldn't go above 2000revs, over a few days got worst and wouldn't go above 1500revs, it did seem to clear itself. at first i thought it was a problem with fuel, but i discovered 1 of the intercooler pipes split and collapsed inside changed that, and sorted.

Hi,

You know the standard story of garage fleecing women - that meeeeeee!! I have been done for a compleat mug. The worst thing is, the problem varies from tow journey to tow journy. Sometimes it is a bit gutless and other times the revs just completly die off. I went to the garage saying that there is a problem with the revs when towing up hill - want my money back/exchange what ever as i brougt the landy specficly for towing up to 2 1/2 tonnes. They wanted the chance to fix - fair enough.

They had it for two and a half weeeks and in that time it was supposed to have been sent to the deisel specilist - when I drove past, it was sat on their fore court! The deisel place said that they couldn't find any thing wrong with it - if it went there at all.

There are verious other things that they lied about and at the moment due to person **** going on I just don't have the time to sort it. They did manage to fix verious other small things but the suspention still clunks all the time (I was told it was the battery moving arround in its houseing but I know that both the front shock are leaking!) It had a serious oil leak and I was told that it was to be expected due to it age and milage - I had the breather pipe replaced and oh my god - the oil leak has stopped!! I think you get the pitchure. The worring thing was that the curtisy car had simular issues (not towing!) so I am not filled with confidence.

There is a Landy Man but I know that as he is part of the franchise of Landrover that it will be very expensive and I just can't afford it at the moment. Its a double edge sward as I need the landy for it towing and off road driving. I am dying to do some serious off roading but I know that it will not cope with it at the moment. I have never had anything like thins before and I am loving it! I really enjoy driving it.

Stig - why you ask about the garage?

Just to get the background on your problem and to see what or if they had diagnosed any faults. What part of the uk are you as I am sure somebody on here will live not far and would be willing to look at it for you, to at least put your mind at rest with hopefully the correct diagnoses.

Unfortunatly they have given my landy back to me in perfect working order! Diagnosed faults don't exist. So the garage is a dead end - think tipical sales man! The landy is in such perfect working order that while towing a trailer with 24 bales of hay, I struggled to pull away from a slight hill start at a junction. I stalled it 4/5 times! Its a desiel ffs! p Yellow)

Its fine when not towing so I am going to go an start fluttering my eyelashes at verious people in the hope that the will teach me how to do these things that has been suggested, starting with the easiestand cheepest first!

This is not my area of expertease so thank you everyone for pointing me in the right direction.

As for the manual YES .Replacing pipes is easily done but always check the manual for procedure or find a decent garage or some one local with a disco they might help and do a bit on the side too.good luck