starting problem

hello to all, i recently put my 2.5tds 96 range rover back on the road with another engine fitte. it had lay for two years but missed the old girl so got her sorted. recently i have had a problem where on turning on the ignition only the srs light comes up on the dash. on turning the key it eventually worked everything and started the engine. eventually the problem became too much and the engine or dash wouldnt start. two aa patrols have tried to sort it, and one found that by holding in the fog light switch the dash lights and engine worked no problem. if i let the switch out, then the dials go to zero and dont work although the engine keeps running. mechanic cleaned all the plugs into the ecu and everything seemed to be working ok, but sadly it wasnt to be. am really baffled by this, hopefully someone can help. have changed ignition switch but it wasnt the problem. fingers crossed, i do enjoy the old girl and dont want to lose her.

Bad earth connections somewhere

Fusebox? Well known problem. Check for any signs of burning by sight & smell. Withdraw each relay in turn and check the relay itself and the base in the fusebox. The printed circuit board in these fuseboxes is a multilayered type and faults are not always obvious. New ones aren't horrendously expensive. Beware buying anything like that on Ebay. Chances are someone has replaced their own and are trying to flog the old one off.

thank you very much for suggestions, hopefully they will lead me to the problem

This old cookie seems to be comming up on a daily basis now. As Derek says the main fuse box is prone to problems giving you the exact faults you have. These are usually coupled with the BECM throwing a fit and refusing to remember the security code from the injection ecu leading to more problems. Don't mess about and replace the whole unit with new.

try looking for frayed wires,or evidence of rodents nesting in it,this can be a common prob,if not,you are looking at a big headache,with miles of wiring to go thru,hope you are lucky,i wasn't.