Td5 defender engine management light

Hi everyone,

Have got 53 plate defender TD5 which runs fine most of the time, but i have got a intermittent fault where the engine misses a few beats and this causes the engine management light to come on, then it goes out and everything is fine again. On one occasion i went to start it,but noticed there was no engine management light on and no glow plug light when i turned the ignition on, needless to say it would not start.After turning the ignition on and off a few times i noticed the lights were back on and she fired right up.This is driving me mad as tonight it kept missing a few beats and engine managment light was on and off. I thought it was going to let me down completely. Please can anyone help me on this one.

Get fault code read

Hi, took it to my local garage and he has already plugged it in, but told me there was no fault code showing. thanks.

Dogsleg said:

Hi, took it to my local garage and he has already plugged it in, but told me there was no fault code showing. thanks.

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it needs reading with a dedicated LR fault reader, if you put your location in the thread someone may be able to help

Mine had a similar issue. Turned out to be bad earths all over the place.

Clean/replace. If you have the time and patience its do able your self, however after freezing weather and many spanners in the eye i gave up and paid a man.

Worth checking for the age old 'oil in loom' problem too. Mine did this a few times before stopping completely and there was a lot of oil in the multiplug where the injector loom enters the cylinder head.

Another possibility is an intermittend fault in the wiring looms themselves. Unless the fault reader can catch them at it, it may not show up. TD5 wiring can deteriotate as I know from experience. Deep inside those corrugated plastic tubes that seem to be used everywhere in the Land Rover's wiring, insulation gets brittle and copper wires break, especially where they're subject to heat, moisture or abrasive road dirt coupled with a little vibration.

Thanks for the replies, have already checked the plug on top of engine and it is very clean with no oil contamination, as far as the wiring loom where would you start to look for problems. cheers.