HELP - Disco 2 Td5 cranking but not starting - Fixed?

Hi all,
My Disco was driving fine since I have got it. Today I drove a short distance and parked the car. All was fine.
I wanted to return home and it didn't want to start. It cranks but it wont start.

Any pointers to what that can be? I left the car and didn't listen if the fuel pump was running but I will do that when I collect it and report back.

Son had similar happen to his 2004 Td5 3 years ago, was oil in the injector harness, had leaked through to the ECU connection. Was with him at the time, just squirted a fair bit of contact cleaner in to the end of harness and into the plug to the ECU and shook the **** out of them to dislodge as much oil as possible. Put it back together and it went for another month before it done it again, carried out the same quick fix as before and away again no trouble. He did eventually replace the harness though and prior to installing it, filled the plug end inside the rocker cover with silicone and no more issues.

Cheers, I will check that!!

Ok fuel pump is running, will check harnas next.

manual or auto... usually the harness/oil in ECU causes running issues not non-starting, for complete non-starter the battery, crank sensor or starter are the prime suspects... check voltage while cranking, if it drops under 10V it will not start, you need nore power then, the starter also used to develop an internal fault as to disturb the crank signal, try to bump start it and if it starts replace the starter, check the crank sensor's plug too... and find somebody with tester

There are random problems with radio signals from bars. I usually have the same problem on three places near me. It helps to push the car a few meters away and try again. This electronic **** from Orderman is on the same frequency and causes problems on various cars.

I disabled the electronic lock mechanism of my car and so long everything is good.
The same thing is with the remote locking, but this is not possible to disengage.

Give it a try

Radio interference would let the immobiliser active which means no cranking, not the case here

sierrafery said:

Radio interference would let the immobiliser active which means no cranking, not the case here

Click to expand...

I have no clue about higher electronics but it is a well known fact here in Innsbruck that cars behave like that.

I can often use the remote locking but then when turning the key the immobiliser light is on and the car is cranking but not starting.
A friend with a MJ 2000 Disco faces the same problems but his car sometimes activates the alarm system and is honking like mad.

The only solution without computer is to leave the car lock it down and try again. Likes working with an older windows. Close everything and restart.

Ahaggar said:

I can often use the remote locking but then when turning the key the immobiliser light is on and the car is cranking but not starting.

Click to expand...

then your car has some other problem cos when the red led(immobiliser) is on it's not supposed to crank whatsoever... the immobiliser is conceived to cut the starter feed too(amongst others). it's not about higher electronics it's about how it was built

BODY CONTROL UNIT- DESCRIPTION AND OPERATION 86-3-19 said:

Immobilisation
For immobilisation, the BCU disables the starter motor relay. .....

Click to expand...

sierrafery said:

then your car has some other problem cos when the red led(immobiliser) is on it's not supposed to crank whatsoever... the immobiliser is conceived to cut the starter feed too(amongst others). it's not about higher electronics it's about how it was built

Click to expand...

I`m with you, my car has a lot of problems and I know it should not crank with the immobiliser on.
But it does.

I towed the car home and we tried to start it with jump leads but no luck. I will measure the power drop when starting.

sierrafery said:

manual or auto... usually the harness/oil in ECU causes running issues not non-starting, for complete non-starter the battery, crank sensor or starter are the prime suspects... check voltage while cranking, if it drops under 10V it will not start, you need nore power then, the starter also used to develop an internal fault as to disturb the crank signal, try to bump start it and if it starts replace the starter, check the crank sensor's plug too... and find somebody with tester

Click to expand...

Cheers for the comments. It is an manual. I towed the car home and we tried to start it with jump leads but no luck. I will measure the power drop when starting.
I have someone lined up for the weekend with a tester.
We didn't try to bump start it, I should have thought of that while we were towing it.

sierrafery said:

then your car has some other problem cos when the red led(immobiliser) is on it's not supposed to crank whatsoever... the immobiliser is conceived to cut the starter feed too(amongst others). it's not about higher electronics it's about how it was built

Click to expand...

Thank you so much!!! After your post I thought I start with the most simple thing and as you pointed out a knackered battery could be the issue I thought I charge it for a day and a night. I put it back in and low and behold it started straight away!! So I have a new battery ordered.

Can it still be something else? I am going to read the fault codes on Monday.

make sure that the charging system is OK cos if it isnt a new battery will fail soon as well, you must get around 14V on the battery with engine running

This sounds suspiciously like a problem that I have encountered. The starter motor leads are situated close to the cut off solenoid (?) on the TD5 engine. If the starter motor is getting 'tired' it will draw a lot of current. This can induce a magnetic field around the cables which can operate the cut off solenoid. There is no way that I know of to test for it without swapping out the starter motor.

sierrafery said:

make sure that the charging system is OK cos if it isnt a new battery will fail soon as well, you must get around 14V on the battery with engine running

Click to expand...

Will do, I would not have thought that this would be the issue if you would not have told me!!!

Thank a million!!

Donkey871 said:

This sounds suspiciously like a problem that I have encountered. The starter motor leads are situated close to the cut off solenoid (?) on the TD5 engine. If the starter motor is getting 'tired' it will draw a lot of current. This can induce a magnetic field around the cables which can operate the cut off solenoid. There is no way that I know of to test for it without swapping out the starter motor.

Click to expand...

OK thanks for that, as that sounds something that I would have never thought to be even possible, let alone look for. If it happens again I will consider swapping the starter motor.

Donkey871 said:

This sounds suspiciously like a problem that I have encountered. The starter motor leads are situated close to the cut off solenoid (?) on the TD5 engine. If the starter motor is getting 'tired' it will draw a lot of current. This can induce a magnetic field around the cables which can operate the cut off solenoid. There is no way that I know of to test for it without swapping out the starter motor.

Click to expand...

it's not about "cut of solenoid" (actually i dunno what that would be)... a bad starter disturbes the crank sensor's signal then it cranks but doesnt start that's for sure

Would that show up as a

sierrafery said:

it's not about "cut of solenoid" (actually i dunno what that would be)... a bad starter disturbes the crank sensor's signal then it cranks but doesnt start that's for sure

Click to expand...

fault code?

yes, it should leave a "noisy crank signal" code logged... though it doesnt happen all the time

sierrafery said:

it's not about "cut of solenoid" (actually i dunno what that would be)... a bad starter disturbes the crank sensor's signal then it cranks but doesnt start that's for sure

Click to expand...

you are quite correct, my apologies, a senior moment! It is indeed the crank sensor signal that it interferes with.