Daisy got us home - eventually.

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DaisyDriver

Member
Posts
87
Location
Canberra
Regular readers will have seen that Daisy (D2 TD5) is acting up and keeps losing a cylinder above 100kph. I have eliminated the fuel pump, filter, air bleed valve, non return valve, EGR valve, ECU plug, ECU, injector harness, crankshaft sensor and injector seals from my enquires and a diagnostic session at the local LR dealer found no fault. She was running on the button around town so I thought we were good to go for yesterday's move from Sydney to Canberra. Mrs L, 3 daughters and 2 cats went ahead in the Mini, me, Oliver (8 - human) and Patch (3 - Jack Russell) followed in Daisy with a full load of garage junk. All went well for the first 40km then I tried overtaking at 100kph and lost a cylinder and all power. In the end it took us 12 hours to cover the 300km from Sydney to Canberra and I normally do it in 3. Perversely of course, Daisy fired up first go this morning.

Clearly Daisy is not well and tomorrow I'm getting some experts on the job and will report back; but on a more positive note:

She got us home - the most important thing:
Her battery must be harbouring a small nuclear reactor because it just kept on churning away when she would not start.
Same for the cheap Chinese starter motor I fitted 3 years ago on the grounds that on a cost benefit basis it was so cheap that it only had last 2 years of normal use, never mind the thrashing it has recently received.
Low ratio is a life saver, it got to the point when ANY pedal pressure would kill the engine. Simply shift to low box and pull off in 3rd with no foot pressure on the accelerator. 6.8 kph is really slow but it's moving.
Gravity is your friend, just wait until you have slowed to 30kph before engaging low 5th.
Full marks to Oliver who, when I suggested pulling over at a service station said 'she's running KEEP GOING!'
Full marks to Patch for getting his head down and sleeping through the whole thing.
And full marks to the rest of my family for coming out to meet us at the first MacDonald's on the outskirts of Canberra with coffee and muffins.
Thank you to Radios 2 & 4 for keeping me sane all the way.
We did at least have little to fear from a kangastrike; moving so slowly would have given us plenty of time to avoid a hit, instead we saw dozens of them, plus the odd wombat, just watching us trundle by.
Thank you to all the truck drivers, by far the majority, (and Aussie trucks are big) who pulled out to the outside lane to give us some space as we trundled down the hard shoulder.

In our Land Rovers we have lots of options and a lot has to go wrong before forward progress is impossible. 100km in low ratio wasn't fun but it was better than walking. Daisy brought us home; eventually. We will fix the problem and get back on the road. And Oliver has had an adventure he will never forget.

Thank you Daisy.
 
Stories like that always remind me of classic films, Ice Cold in Alex, Flight of the Phoenix etc!
I swear its possible to start a car and keep it going by sheer will power!
Conversely, my GF is convinced my D2 blew up cos I was in a foul mood that day!
Did you have your injectors checked? I know its a pet subject of mine, but it sorted my issue out.
Was she smoking when she was miss behaving?
Mark
 
Stories like that always remind me of classic films, Ice Cold in Alex, Flight of the Phoenix etc!
I swear its possible to start a car and keep it going by sheer will power!
Conversely, my GF is convinced my D2 blew up cos I was in a foul mood that day!
Did you have your injectors checked? I know its a pet subject of mine, but it sorted my issue out.
Was she smoking when she was miss behaving?
Mark
Mark
This was right up there with Alex and the Phoenix, I even downed a large glass of red wine (instead of ice cold beer) before going to bed this morning! The only thing lacking was an appropriate Elgar track as we crested the final summit before the descent into Canberra. As for will power, I agree. I used to have an MGB that seemed to start if the driver and passenger each held hands and the dashboard and hummed. Oliver and I used the same trick twice last night and it worked each time. Being more serious, I only got smoke when she finally fired up after extended churning of the engine. I had a 200Tdi that laid smoke like it was the Battle of Jutland which turned out to be a slipped crank shaft pulley. I think it can only be injectors (because they are not truly ruled out), or the new fuel pump (Britpart) or the fuel pipes because of the noise they are making.

As for will power, I had all I needed in the front passenger seat. He's only 8 but every time Daisy fired up Oliver cheered and kept willing her to keep going. He even counted the cats eyes as we crept past them in low ratio. His face as he saw the sky lighten to sunrise was a picture; as long as he lives he won't forget last night.

David
 
David
Maybe its just UK cars that have souls! I did a similar thing with my Midget!
It is a strange fault you have there, worth doing a thorough check of all the wiring in the engine bay, clean all the plugs you can get too by disconnecting, spraying with IPA then reconnecting/disconnecting a few times, then ideally spraying with a water repellant spray, not WD40 but thats ok at a push.
There have been posts on here showing frayed wires around the ECU area.
Then I guess the injectors will need testing.
You need to get it sorted though, you dont want the first "Ute" your son buys to be......a Nissan/Toyota!!!!
Mark
 
Thinking about what you said about Daisy, have you had a look at the intercooler hoses? Mine did something very similar on the good old M1 when we where driving back down from Leeds. The only thing that saved us was the confessions on Simon Mayo and that there was so much traffic anything above 40MPH was aspirational! Andy from Andy's landy's in Coventry suggested disconnection the turbo hose at the inlet manifold and trying that! turns out it had partly delaminated and ballooned inwards at certain loads / speeds!
 
Hmm, I have a Disco - and an MGB! Luckily neither have misbehaved quite to the extent that yours have (yet - touch wood).

The only wombats we saw on the road in Oz were 'inverted' - and swelling.....
 
Thinking about what you said about Daisy, have you had a look at the intercooler hoses? Mine did something very similar on the good old M1 when we where driving back down from Leeds. The only thing that saved us was the confessions on Simon Mayo and that there was so much traffic anything above 40MPH was aspirational! Andy from Andy's landy's in Coventry suggested disconnection the turbo hose at the inlet manifold and trying that! turns out it had partly delaminated and ballooned inwards at certain loads / speeds!
I'll have a look at the turbo hose. Daisy has been good as gold since getting to Canberra. Acceleration, loading and even labouring the engine does not trigger the fault. Only trying accelerate hard above 100kph seems to bring it on. That said, she starts on the button if I wait until the fuel pump has stopped growling, otherwise she takes a little churning to start up. I'm actually going to enjoy solving this.
 
Hmm, I have a Disco - and an MGB! Luckily neither have misbehaved quite to the extent that yours have (yet - touch wood).

The only wombats we saw on the road in Oz were 'inverted' - and swelling.....
I so miss my 73 MGBGT! Battered and (ultimately) as rotten as she was I loved driving her. I regularly drove like a loon across Salisbury Plain between Portsmouth and Cardiff in the days before the Newbury Bypass and Twyford Down were built. Back to Oz, wombats are known to rip sumps off and kangaroos regularly write off cars. The road network is unfenced so I prefer driving by day and at night I tend to stay behind at least one car or if alone, straddle both lanes. Meanwhile, we've moved house, Daisy is behaving perfectly below 100kph and now I live 15km from work instead of 300 I can cycle to work while we fix Daisy.
 
That's a funny write up!
And it's all true Flossie. One of the odd things about Land Rovers is that any other car would be ditched for scrap but not Daisy. SWMBO made some noises about replacing her and the children leapt to her defence. Finding the fault has become a bit of a detective mystery but we will get to the bottom of it, we are down to fuel lines, injector seals, injectors, and random something else As soon as I get the answer I'll do a write up. This seems to be a common fault with multiple potential causes; added to which Daisy is 12 so she may have multiple faults and the amount of components I have already changed opens the door wide to a mistake by me or a duff part. What this space!
 
Random question but have you checked the ecu plugs havent got oil in? Pull the ecu out and remove the plugs and see if full of oil. The oil travels up the wiring harness an causes issues i have seen it numerous times.

Use electrical contact clearer oinly
 
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