Disco 1 Starting problem help!!!

New to this so please bare with me I have a 96 300tdi disco had no problems with it then once I was at petrol station and wouldn't start left it 10min and started fine ran with no issues read on here about the immobiliser fault so I fitted a spider bypass thought all was good untill this morning when same thing happened again all ignition lights come on but turn the key and nothing but a click coming from the passenger side however as I was on a green lane last night I did notice the headlights dimming then coming back all the time if this is any help any advice would be great thanks.

Bad earth?

Would there be an earth coming off the starter?

Normally an earth from the bell housing to chassis and another from chassis to battery.

Starter normally earth's through the engine block (to chassis to battery).

Chuck some jump leads in and the next time it does it connect a lead from battery -ve to engine block and if it fires up then earth's are the problem.

Either that or take them off, clean them up and put them back anyway

Thanks blue beasty just done what you said with the jump leads and boom started to turn over

Disco87 said:

Thanks blue beasty just done what you said with the jump leads and boom started to turn over

Click to expand...

Time to crawl under with some spanners and emery cloth then

Was only turning over slow when I did that not sure if that's the battery tho. Is it just a case of cleaning up the connectors to the starter then?

I'd be cleaning all earths up to start with, check alternator is charging right, and the battery is a good'en

This may sound silly but where abouts would all the earths be?

Also check/clean up the battery post connections, both +ive and -ive, did a car with that problem last week, battery was near new but leads had dirty connections.

Disco87 said:

This may sound silly but where abouts would all the earths be?

Click to expand...

Download a copy of RAVE (you'll be needing it) and it has all the electrical info including grounding.

Here's where I am at the moment been out having a look around and cleaning up some earths I could see. Still just the alternater clicking put on a new battery just to rule that out and still the same earthed it with a jump lead from negative to the engine block starter turned slowly but still wouldn't fire then noticed as I had turned the key a few times smoke coming out of the centre console where my handbrake is I'm guessing this isn't normal?

it could be using the handbrake cable as an earth, this points to shagged earths somewhere

Well it has seized may cable whatever it was doing. I did get it started jumping it from the wife's car positive to positive then negative from car onto the disco engine block and fired straight up does this point to bad earth?

Disco87 said:

Well it has seized may cable whatever it was doing. I did get it started jumping it from the wife's car positive to positive then negative from car onto the disco engine block and fired straight up does this point to bad earth?

Click to expand...

errr yes!

Sorry must sound dumb but new to all this lol guess it's down to finding the culprit then. Thanks all for your help wouldn't have had a clue otherwise

There is one directly from the battery on to the engine bay/chassis, then there is one on one of the starter bolts to the chassis... These are the bigger core cables...
What you also have is, on most, if not all the individual wiring harness's a earth wire comes out, and is bolted to the body, usually a M10 lug, there are some in the engine bay, and some behind the dash, and at the rear of the Disco. ..

What you probably have is a the stud on the body has rusted off, and the body is being earthed thru the engine and to the body via the handbrake cable...
Do an internet search for RAVE...it tells you where all the earths are...
Do a fix that usually works, put a new earth cable from the body direct to the battery ...

Disco87 said:

Sorry must sound dumb but new to all this lol guess it's down to finding the culprit then. Thanks all for your help wouldn't have had a clue otherwise

Click to expand...

You may never find it ... it's rusted away ...

Haha that was the case with my inner wings so had new ones welded in just a shame about the rest of the chassis lol

Disco87 said:

Sorry must sound dumb but new to all this lol guess it's down to finding the culprit then. Thanks all for your help wouldn't have had a clue otherwise

Click to expand...

Sorry mate, didnt mean to come over as such an ar$e. if it starts with cables in place of earths it has to be an earth or two that have failed, remember they are quite simple beasts really so dont worry about making the old one good right now just bang a fresh one on somewhere that does the same job as the temp jump lead solution to keep you going then you can spend the time finding the shagged one and replacing it, more is better with earths