Waking up a sleepy Defender.

My Td5 Defender has been dormant on the driveway for 3 years while I’ve been away. my wife is trying to start it in preparation for my return- whenever Covid19 goes away- she’s reconnected the battery and fixed the loose connection on the starter motor. It turns over but won’t fire. Does it need a few pumps on the accelerator or can you thinkof anything else she might do to help?

Is it a good battery as one stood for 3 years is unlikely to do the job

Muddy tree man said:

My Td5 Defender has been dormant on the driveway for 3 years while I’ve been away. my wife is trying to start it in preparation for my return- whenever Covid19 goes away- she’s reconnected the battery and fixed the loose connection on the starter motor. It turns over but won’t fire. Does it need a few pumps on the accelerator or can you thinkof anything else she might do to help?

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If you have fresh diesel in the tank then try turn on the ignition, then press the accelerator pedal to the floor five or six times, the purging cycle will begin, dashboard light flashes and you hear the pump pumping, this lasts a couple of minutes and it's worth turning off the ignition and repeating the process a couple of times.
Try turning it over and press the pedal to the floor while its spinning.
Hope it helps, but it depends on the actual problem, which could be a different one.

Thanks for that. She hasn’t refilled the diesel, so could stale diesel be the issue?

johnlad said:

Is it a good battery as one stood for 3 years is unlikely to do the job

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The battery isn’t great, I admit, but it has charged up and is turning over, just not firing

Muddy tree man said:

Thanks for that. She hasn’t refilled the diesel, so could stale diesel be the issue?

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May be, three years is quite a while, try the purge routine, and see if it tries to start (exhaust smoke) if so may be worth putting some fresh in there.

Muddy tree man said:

The battery isn’t great, I admit, but it has charged up and is turning over, just not firing

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It may turn over but the ecu needs to see 10.5v whilst cranking otherwise it won’t fire the injectors

johnlad said:

It may turn over but the ecu needs to see 10.5v whilst cranking otherwise it won’t fire the injectors

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That’s good to know, thanks!

raywin said:

May be, three years is quite a while, try the purge routine, and see if it tries to start (exhaust smoke) if so may be worth putting some fresh in there.

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Yes!! I think fresh diesel may be a good idea after reading some stuff about stale fuel. Thanks

Muddy tree man said:

That’s good to know, thanks!

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If it’s a manual you could try tow starting

A TD5 really does require a good strong battery to get it spinning over fast enough to start.

Give it a blast of easy start and see what happens...

Thanks for all your help.
With a new battery, it fired up, no problem!

Muddy tree man said:

she’s reconnected the battery and fixed the loose connection on the starter motor.

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Wow she's a keeper.

doriz said:

Wow she's a keeper.

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Yes; she is!