TD4 power loss when pulling away.

First let me say Hi to everyone,and as a new member look forward to some interesting Land Rover info from some of your senior / experienced members.I have a very puzzling intermittent problem with an almost new (sept 04} Td4, it happens almost daily after driving for approx 7-10 miles or about 20-25 mins driving time in relatively urban traffic,from cold. Usually the car pulls away fine with hardly any increase in revs needed, but when this problem occurs, the car will almost stall (or does stall),before i realise it requires more revs to keep it going and then the car will pull away, initially with very little power before building up to normal, i have pulled off onto quiet roads when this has happened and pulled away many times with the car doing exactly this for 5 or 10 mins before it seems to return to normal again, sometimes it will catch me out again later, or not happen til the next time i run it from cold. As you can appreciate this is a rather dangerous fault and the vehicle has been back to the dealership 4 times and still the problem persists. No faults logged on ecu apparently, no warning lights come on when this happens, airflow sensor and ecu have been changed so far, and they tell me the fuelling seems ok, although i doubt if LR had the test equipment on when the fault occurs.I have noticed some oil in pipes to intercooler, but they tell me this is normal, I'm beginning to wonder if this can ever be solved and I think Land Rover are too.Can anyone HELPPPP PLEASE.

Hi the landrover diag system should pick up on the fault its so easy my 2 yr old could work it,you say airflow meter has been changed you know when this goes as it revs slowly and not to full power,you say it does it more from cold when the fault happens have you ever switched off the ignition left it a minute or 2 and tried restarting it,try this because if the fault clears it could be an undetectable fault in the ecu,it sounds a bit like the air flow maf sensor could be a break in the wiring this wont bring on the mill light and it is obviously intermitant,the fuel injectors sometimes flow return to much fuel but normally car has trouble starting when these go,it could be high pressure fuel sensor,the connectors some times have this powder type residue from new and create bad contacts,this will reduse power or stop engine if low fuel pressure as so not to harm engine,if it had low fuel pressure at any time t4 would have picked this up,do you live any where near yeovil if you do i will fix it for you.

Thank you tigapiglet, I will have a look into your suggestions, and will let you know if I find anything. The ecu was changed on the last visit to dealership due to a pcm fault or something, the only fix was to change the item. The car seemed to run ok for a couple of days then the fault has returned with a regular vengeance. Could the fault have damaged the new ecu do you think, or could the new ecu have the same fault, unlikely i know but what do you think?Also, with this being an intermittent fault would the t4 have to be connected at the very instant the fault occurred for it to show up to the technician? Latest is I have just driven car home from work and yes after the usual 9 miles or so it started to die on me when pulling away, I switched off for a couple of mins and when I re started the fault had gone away (for the moment). So does this mean the latest ecu is duff as well then? Looked at high press fuel switch connector and this looks very clean. Haven't looked at wiring yet.Going on to something else but it could cause running problems, is the presence of oil in intercooler pipes and a black sticky mess in egr valve, is this normal like LR say or is the turbo leaking oil past its shaft seals? Sorry to pile the questions up but you sound like you know what you're talking about. Best Rgds.

It seems to me that this is a common problem with TD4s . Mine ( automatic-steptronic ) starts to stall at around 75-80 mph in 5th gear. As usuall no warning lights come on and everything else works fine ( no temp increase, no black smoke, no warning lights etc etc ). When I shift back into the 4th gear engine regains the pull and power, but as it goes again in the 5th gear at 75-80 it stalls . Went to the dealer who said that Air Flow meter is faulty. Replaced it, but the stall is still there. Alltogether went to 3 diff dealers and they could not find anything ?! The last one reloaded the computer and the fault still persists. I know that I am not answering your ( and mine ) problem , but can someone PLEASE help us . This is so annoying and my nerves are at the edge......

Hi

Try disconecting the airflow sensor at the back left hand side of the engine (looking from the front) on the air filter housing this will revert the settings to default and should iccrease the power if the mass airflow is faulty. Worth a try, mines running a lot better!!!!!!!!!!!

My new TD4 (2 weeks old) with 400 miles on it does the same.

Hi, I have heard it mentioned that there are 1 or 2 other td4's out there with this problem, and hopefully l/r technical bods are possibly starting to take this seriously at last. If i run my car with the egr valve vaccuum pipe disconnected and blanked off (this has been documented to l/rover ) for a few days, the problem does not rear its ugly head, and when valve is made operational again, of course back the problem comes with regularity. This was narrowed down by a very good technician at my dealership, and it looks like he's on the right track,but problem could be due to ecu programming ie valve control rather than the actual valve itself. If it was the valve sticking or something i would have expected the power loss problem to occur at more random times. Anyhow l/r technical are I hope looking at my problem and i really hope they are gonna come up with the answer soon.
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Had the same problem, booked into dealer and when we picked the car up they told us they have done a download. No other details given. Problem seems better bit still occasionally happens (once in a week so far)

Thanks for your input all of you who are suffering the same problem as me, i was beginning to think Land rover were ignoring my pleas for help, and that i was the only one in the world with this godawful problem,lets hope they come up with a definite solution soon. I would urge anyone else who has this problem to share any info they can on this. Best Rgds.

Hi all,
I have the same problem with my 2001 TD4 ES, with 37000 miles. It seems to have lost all it's power to the point that I bought and fitted a "CR Power box" to the common rail sensor. Well! The problem is still there at pulling away speed, (the engine is sluggish) but much improved when the turbo cuts in at around 2500 rpm.
This does not help the low revs problem and the slightest mention of a hill sends the engine into "sod this" mode. Top speed has been affected too. This car used to get up to 110mph, (offroad of course.....cough....!) but just recently, it would'nt pull you out of bed. I scensed that something was wrong earlier on when I noticed that when the turbo cut in at 2500 rpm, the boost would fade away at around 3100 rpm and return mildly at around 3800 and then the engine would run out of breath.
Today I have bought a new air filter and fuel filter to fit to the car and see if it improves. Might be in for an airflow meter!!!!!!!
Regards, Martin

Hi all new to forums but i am so annoyed i have just been looked for some help with this problem and may be able to help others i have a 6 month old td4 with the same problems as yours hard to pull away surges if you keep it at any where between 60 & 70 try this one if you havent (constant throttle it will feel like its running out of fuel) my car has been re mapped 3 times and an engineer has been from landrover and his report states it needs to go back to the factory they have now had it 4 weeks ,they do know about this problem and the juddering clutches if its under warrenty return it and get service to call Ld uk dont be fobbed off i cant give anymore details at the momment as i dont wish to jepordise my own claim but i will tell you the dealer service manager didnt know untill i found out

Dealers....! Stealers more like it...! When I bought my TD4 (it was 4 months old) it kept running out of fuel before the warning light came on. I took it back 6 times to the main dealer with the same problem, only to be told by the service manager, "we've sorted it!" each time. I investigated the problem myself and found that the tank pump was duff. They denied this,(because it was an expensive item to replace) and it ended up with me contacting H.Q. at Warwick, before I got any joy. New pump fitted, problem solved! Scandalous!!!
I service it myself now.
Regards,
Martin

Hi all,

I too have a Freelander TD4 (Yr 2000, X Reg), just done 50,000 miles, and I have had this fault for the past 6-9 months.

When I put my foot down when pulling away from a junction etc., it feels like I might not get away!! I have noticed that the problem is worse some days and better others (but never brilliant). It doesn't seem to follow any pattern i.e hot or cold, damp or dry etc.

Having never been able to compare it to other Freelander TD4's, I have taken a couple out for test drives and they are definitely a lot pokier than mine. Reminds me of how mine used to be (I think).

I have been told that its definitely the Air Flow Sensor. Is this something that I could replace myself? Is it just a straightforward 'swap out' operation? However, I'm not sure where it is and whether I would need to set it up on diagnostic test equipment afterwards. Likewise, do you know where I can buy one cheaper than Genuine Parts from LR dealers? Will it impact upon the fuel consumption and how? Any help appreciated.

PS - I was a motor mechanic 15yrs ago and so I have some basic mechanical knowledge, although I have forgotten alot!!

Hello everyone, well it seems that I have developed the same problem on my car, firstly I had a faulty airmass meter that I replaced sneakly with a pierburg probe from a BMW 320D unfortunatly this didnt work so I had to but a £180 replacement airmass meter from the stealers! from BMW the probe that looks exactly the same was only £50... well thats another story! Well once I fitted my very expensive replacement airmass meter I went down our local carriageway gleaming with delight on the wonderful power I now had, but,,...... in true landrover style I had another problem when I accelarated up to 90-95mph the car suddenly flattened completely out and would not go any further, well this had to be continually checked hence my now pending speeeding ticket from a laser opperated camera!! it did used to go right up to 110mph well does anybody know why this is happening is it the acctuator running out of puff at high boost? any landie mechanics out there????

response to tdpwhoar, unplug the airmass meter and it will default to the original default settings if it gets better leave it off untill you can get a replacement, it wont damage ya engine but it might increase fuel consupmtion a little but it will b definatly better than u will b gettin now, the meter is under the plastic cover on the LHS at the opposite end of the air filter the eletronic clip is a bit fiddly but will undo fairly easy, once ya done that u will b amazed at the difference! ps, I think u will have to undo the airbox cover which is a pain in the butt.

Hi all you poor long suffering freelander owners,an easier way to check your mass air flow sensors is if you have the car at idle and then push go peddle straight to the floor the car should rev within about 2 secs to 4500rpm if its slow or hessitant then its knackered,if your beloved car does not rev above 3500 rpm then your fuel pump is knackered,depending on year the fuel pumps are located in different places, i have noticed and replaced some egr valves as the gunk up and stick,if this sticks you will loose power,on the old 300tdi these were blanked off to give extra power,you can blank off the vacuum hose which goes to the egr valve with a small ball bearing,i would suggest cleaning out all the gunk first,the egr is controlled by the ecm which is controlled by an eletronic solenoid unit this is identical to the turbo boost solenoid so if you think of disconecting it disconect the right one, i have not replaced many turbos loads of turbo hoses because of splitting or going porous leaking oil from the skin of the hose wall this will cause lack of power as will hoses collapsing inside,the turbo is a variable adjusting vane type and they can seize not giving full boost and the acctuator themselves can seize but all this can be checked as you put it by the "stealers",the only other common problem td4s suffer from is the injectors leaking back to the fuel tank,a bit of advise to you owners is take off the plastic joiners on the washer jets in the bonnet and just connect them with the rubber tube,the reason why is that they leak and the washer fluid runs into the injector valley causing no 1-2 injectors seizing in meaning head off and get it to a engineer,simply pull off plastic elbow with pliers if not already split,you can disconect maf sensor without removing air filter box but you will have to take off top engine cover to get to maf sensor newer vehicles did not have a cover over it im sorry if i cant help anymore but i tried, tiga

Yes, after reading the general responses to this problem as being a common 'unplug the MAFS', I removed the air filter housing (as you say, not the most friendly of things to get off, and probably worse to get back) and unplugged the sensor.

The change in performance is almost unreal, the car actually accelerates now!! I'm still not sure if its as good as it should be, but it has improved one heck of alot.

So where can I get a new MAFS without having to go to a LR dealer? Wil it need tuning after fitting?

everywhere I went to get the bosch part said that this MAF sensor is a tied part to landrover, they got us all by the curlies!

I've disconnected the MAF and thats the way I'm leaving it. It runs like I would expect a £22,000 vehicle to. Land Rover may well be shooting themselves in the foot by ripping owners off like they do, with their un-explained, extortionate, over pricing of spares. It's the last Land Rover I'll buy.

Same here.

My 04 TD4 has had 3 new MAFs, and a software upgrade to the ECU, and guess what?

s'right its still not working. I'm going to try pulling the MAF sensor off as suggested, something has got to improved the chronic 25mpg in all driving conditions i'm getting!

It is going back onto Testbook to be re-diagnosed.

To their credit my dealer have been very good at tracking and trying to solve this problem, even the service guy has noticed it himself, he was telling me that he would make the same journey to York and back on a full tank, but now on the newer model he has to stop halfway to top up!

Lets see what LR have to say next.

Not their fault, BMW are to blame entirely!

Going to get my chipped and send LR the bill, see how it goes down!

Oh and don't waste your time with LR Customer (don't)Care, what a nightmare!