TD4 power loss when pulling away.

Dear All,
We have had 2 TD4's visit us with similar faults and managed to solve both. If we can be of any assistance to you, please contact Kingsley Cross Country on 01420 475303 we are a family run firm of "Land Rover Anoraks" who have been trading for 21 years.
Cheers
Suzy

Hi Suzy,

Being in Belgium myself and lots of other members live in other countries I understand this is meant just for the UK people ? Or will a detailed report about what was done to fix this problem come in later ??

Apologies Will & all those hailing from warmer / more exciting places.
We are of course more than happy to help any one in need of Land Rover assistance if we possibly can, although I cannot guarantee how good our language skills are!
The main 3 items that show these faults are as follows;
1 - Air Flow Metre
2 - Throttle Potentiometer
3 - Turbo Charger Dump Valve Solenoid (has a tendency to stick open, causing a lack of turbo pressure therefore choking the engine) The part is approx £80.00

I appreciate that some people have already gone the Air Flow Metre route but the solenoid (No 3) has certainly ultimately rectified the two we have seen, there is obviously no guarantee that this will fix all of the vehicles but will certainly rectify a large quantity of them.

Let us know how you get on or contact us for further info.

Thanks

Suzy

Hi Suzy,

Thanks a lot for the info. I myself am not suffering of this problem but I know several members here do, also my neighbour who bought a MY05 Td4 Sport had problems, as it is winter it's quite a while I've seen him, last time I spoke him he said an appointment was made with the garage re. this, but at the moment I don't know the outcome of it. Thanks again anyway and regards. Ciao.

Been watching this post for a while now,got called out to a td4 yesterday with abs faults - according to the companies transport manager.Failed to tell me that the car had engine running faults as well- hesitation and running out of steam at 70mph.
One of 2 things usually cause this,the first is the vacuum solenoid actuator for the variable nozzle turbo,(Suzyg- it does not have a wastegate like an "ordinary" turbo - it varies the amount of boost by a set of vanes altering the angle that the air passes through the turbo)
The second is that the linkage in the turbo housing jams up - usually in the max boost position.
Both end up with the engine ecu seeing an overboost situation and shutting down the fuel pressure in the oulet of the high pressure pump,limiting output until you come off the throttle for a couple of secs.From memory the solenoid is Stc4189,and is about £35 +vat.

Well,

Car went in yesterday to have this problem looked at. I printed off this forum and handed it to the guy that picked up the car. "The garage called me back and said, we put it on the diagnostics and couldn't find anything wrong" What happened to good old fashioned mechanics and a bit of tinkering eh? I work in IT and I wouldn't rely on a PC to tell me what was wrong with it from start to finish! These self diagnostic things spit out more erronous crap than you could imagine! So how a car with all it's mechanics can get it right is beyond me!!!

So, The car had a couple of bolts on the boot door that had gone rusty (I have an 05 plate car) which they don't carry in stock. When the car goes in to have those bolts replaced, they are going to keep it overnight to see if they can simulate the problem.

I have to say though, apart from not taking the fault seriously, Webbers have been pretty good. They came and collected the car from me at work in Winchester, a good 20-25 minutes away from the garage at no extra cost to me. When I spoke to the guy in service at the end of the day and impressed upon him that I wasn't imagining this problem he didn't hesitate to arrange for it to come in for a couple of days. The car was dropped back to me before 5 in the eveining so that i could drive it home. Not bad.


I'll post again as soon as I have more news.
Meanwhile, Someone else said they had been to Webbers of Basingstoke. Did you ever manage to get the problem resolved with them?

calvindt said:

Well,

Car went in yesterday to have this problem looked at. I printed off this forum and handed it to the guy that picked up the car. "The garage called me back and said, we put it on the diagnostics and couldn't find anything wrong" What happened to good old fashioned mechanics and a bit of tinkering eh? I work in IT and I wouldn't rely on a PC to tell me what was wrong with it from start to finish! These self diagnostic things spit out more erronous crap than you could imagine! So how a car with all it's mechanics can get it right is beyond me!!!

So, The car had a couple of bolts on the boot door that had gone rusty (I have an 05 plate car) which they don't carry in stock. When the car goes in to have those bolts replaced, they are going to keep it overnight to see if they can simulate the problem.

I have to say though, apart from not taking the fault seriously, Webbers have been pretty good. They came and collected the car from me at work in Winchester, a good 20-25 minutes away from the garage at no extra cost to me. When I spoke to the guy in service at the end of the day and impressed upon him that I wasn't imagining this problem he didn't hesitate to arrange for it to come in for a couple of days. The car was dropped back to me before 5 in the eveining so that i could drive it home. Not bad.


I'll post again as soon as I have more news.
Meanwhile, Someone else said they had been to Webbers of Basingstoke. Did you ever manage to get the problem resolved with them?

Click to expand...

Re the red part:

As far as I know these computer programs are written by software programmers upon information received from the customer (in this case LR), well, as LR seems to be unaware of this kind of problems how the f££k can the "diagnostic computer", running the programs as ordered by LR, give a faultreport of probelsm/something which was never been mentioned to the programmers ?? Maybe I am naive but as far as I can see only known problems are included in these test/diagnostic programs which turn on the LT laptops and all the rest, special problems or those problems showing up after a couple of years are "unknown territory" to whatever diagnostic thing they hook onto the car.

Adding this by editing: If I am wrong, in my view it means that LR IS aware of this kind of problems and in that case it is a real shame they don't interfere or inform their dealers how to solve things.

Think you will find that LR are well aware of the problems of their products.What you have to bear in mind is that LR can only act upon info given to them,and technicians in dealerships ( of any brand of car ) usually work on a bonus scheme.So it doesnt take much thought to work out that "difficult" problems often dont receive as much attention as they might.You might service 3 cars in the time it takes to accurately diagnose 1 faulty one.
The other point I would like to make is that fault codes are only generated by out of parameter readings from whatever sensors are fitted to that particular engine,so say a TD5 defender will not set a fault for low fuel pressure as it does not monitor it - whereas a TD4 will.They can also be misleading as more than one thing can cause say a low airflow meter reading.
This is why fault codes are only a general guide and rarely 100% accurate,much more can be gleaned from live data displays and the use of an oscilliscope when necessary.Trouble is you need to find someone willing to spend the time and not worry about their bonus.

Hi eightinavee,

Thanks and I see what you mean. Also your remarks are correct about the time of repair/bonus granted. I was going to say that too many people in previous posts mention things like "notebook showed no diagnostic faults" thus the technician didn't do anything but as you explain all this is due to the fact they (want to) work against the clock for bonuses sake.

hmmmm - picking up my new F/L tomoro morning from Hunters in Guildford - this is slightly off-putting to hear I must admit

outlander said:

hmmmm - picking up my new F/L tomoro morning from Hunters in Guildford - this is slightly off-putting to hear I must admit

Click to expand...

Don't forget that for the few having this kind of problems there are thousands of others without them.

Sorry Guys,

It's interesting what you say about the bonuses these guys are on. I guess it explains a lot.

willo, please don't take my comments as negative. I was kinda sympathising with the technicians/engineers. If all they have to go on is a diagnostic program rather than the good old fashioned method of tinkering, it's no surprise that there is a low first time fix rate.

I'll just have to wait and see what comes of them having the car for a couple of days.

The only thing you can say about not tinkering is, at least nothing else gets screwed up at the same time.

In response to outlander, This is my first Land Rover and apart from this niggly problem, I am really happy with my Freelander. It's a fantastic vehicle and although I don't drive it "off road" I live in a village with crappy roads which do not get salted in the winter. The Freelander has made this feasible.

I have the samw symptoms mentioned by others in this thread and this morning I tried to disconnect the MAF cable connection (thanks to the picture from willo I had no trouble finding the connection)- however I could not get the connector off, the connector clip has 2 prongs, on either side & I tried prising them outwards and when that didn't work I tried squeezing them in but either way I couldn't pull the connector off. I had the horrible feeling I was going to snap the connector prongs so I wondered if anybody could advise which way I should be moving the prongs (for ref my model is 2002)

thanks

willo said:

Don't forget that for the few having this kind of problems there are thousands of others without them.

Click to expand...

damn good point!! picked it up on Saturday last and just got 1500 miles under its belt - I have been fortunate to have had quite a few new motors in the last few years and I to say that its one of the nicest I have had - cant quite put my finger on it, its slower than my old car, more thirsty and has only a fraction of the 'toys' yet I think its bloody great - gives me a big smile everytime have to go anywhere - I also love the way it handles at lower speeds - islands become a lot of fun.

In terms of power problems, it did a weird thing the other night - I started the engine and went to move away in reverse on full lock, it was as if the clutch was worn (except mine is an auto) as the car just crept backwards - i selected neutral and straightened the wheels and the problem seemed to cure itself - I shall be keeping my eye on it.

The dealer offered me a half days off-roading as well - which was nice

I also managed to pick up a softtop off ebay for 175notes - only used once, its in pretty good nick with a spare set of windows as well - not sure how much Land Rover would have charged but I reckon it would be more than that!!

outlander said:

The dealer offered me a half days off-roading as well - which was nice

I also managed to pick up a softtop off ebay for 175notes - only used once, its in pretty good nick with a spare set of windows as well - not sure how much Land Rover would have charged but I reckon it would be more than that!!

Click to expand...

A bit of advice... make sure you take up the 1/2 day soon. I didn't realise that the voucher expires called up to arrange mine and couldn't. Land Rover experience told me to speak to the dealer as they pay for it and for any vouchers not claimed, the dealer gets the cash back.

Strangely when I called the dealer he had no interest in helping me whatsoever! Real Shame!!

From the sounds of it you have a 3 door Hard back. I'd love to know how you get on with the Softback as I only have the rain cover at present. (But I guess we shouldn't have that conversation in this thread.)

My wife has had her 01 65,000 mile TD4 for around 15 months now, I don’t drive it that much but always thought it was very sluggish. Never having owned a diesel before let alone a 4 x 4, I thought it must be normal until I bought a 200,000 mile Brava truck (Isuzu engine) to fetch & carry building materials on our house project. It’s faster then the Freelander! Pulling away from a standstill into oncoming traffic in the Freelander is, well, an experience! This is usually accompanied by tooting & flashing lights from the nearest car, originally spotted when it was ¼ mile away! A few questions generated vague response but it seemed this was a common trait of Freelanders so I thought I would try & to find out a little more about it.

Being a regular contributor to the TR forum, the obvious thing was to see if there was something similar for the Freelander & so here I am. An initial look though the archive posts found this thread! We’ve had both fuel pumps fail since February, with 2 ridiculous bills to match (the same would buy 3 complete Bosch systems for my TR) & no improvement in performance; & now I’m hearing some frightening stories re transfer box failures & 4 figure bills! Oh my lord, why on earth did I let her buy the thing; why does anyone in their right mind buy one; I thought diesels were supposed to be reliable!

At least this thread has given me somewhere to start looking, is there a checklist or specific order of things to try? The Haynes manual I have is not much use here really (they used to be so good!). I think I would rather stick with my TR, at least I can fix that without resorting to laptops, diagnostic programs to find out which one of a thousand sensors has failed or wizardry when all else fails. Will continue to dig in the archive to see if I can find other stuff in there to frighten me!

Hi Richard,

Has the MAF been checked/replaced ?? I had the same problem, pulling away was a dangerous adventure as it seemed to me the engine led a life of it's own, no matter the gas you gave it did just what it was willing to do at that moment, not very much. After the MAF was replaced the car looked more like a small bomb than the sluggish 25ton truck it seemed to be before.

Hi Will
I ‘m an Engineer & have always done my own servicing/repairs/rebuilds, whatever for my own cars & for other members of my family; but I’ve not kept up with the modern stuff & diesels in particular are a bit of a new entity to me. The mechanics are still basically the same, it’s the bits they now bolt on that have changed so much & a lot of the technology & terminology is new to me; but I also have a IT background & learn fast when I want/need to.

I’ve tried three times to get someone else to sort this out for me but in spite of spending over £1000 on fuel pumps, servicing & so called diagnostics, I’m still no further forward! So, I’m now in the position where I feel I’ve got no choice but to try & sort it myself. I’ve been reading back through the archive & I’ve gleaned that the MAF sensor seems to be an easy place to start so thanks or confirming that; I would be interested to know if there is anything else I should look at/check? I’ve also recognised another of it’s traits, (power drops away in high gear on hills) so I think there are other problems! Perhaps I should just get rid of it!

But hopefully, with the help of this newly discovered forum, I’ll just keep plugging away until I learn enough to sort it; everything is easy if you know what to look for! Oh, if anyone reading this has a problem with or wants to know anything about a TR6, I can almost certainly sort that out for you!

Richard c . . . sounds like yer maff is the 1st place to start if you disconnect your maff , see if you get a better performance if so then your in the right direction, others have fitted another type of maff ,and i cannot remember its name but it works out cheaper, there are a lot more problems [common] beyond that, most of them have been on these forums, keep us all up to date on yer findings and best of luck. . .

outlander said:

In terms of power problems, it did a weird thing the other night - I started the engine and went to move away in reverse on full lock, it was as if the clutch was worn (except mine is an auto) as the car just crept backwards - i selected neutral and straightened the wheels and the problem seemed to cure itself - I shall be keeping my eye on it.

Click to expand...

I think this is normal Outlander. I have an auto V6 and when the steering is in full lock in reverse or drive the car feels like your dragging the World, feels very weird. I wouldn't worry about it, enjoy the Freelander