18p Td5 weirdness: very low mileage and "missing" diagnostic port

A friend brought his South African built 2002 110 CSW with an 18p Td5 to me to scan with my Nanocom (didn't even know there was an 18p!). If anyone happens to know what the 18p differences are, I'm all ears. It looks the same as my 15p in all respects though (FPR routing, etc.).

This 110 is really in pristine shape. Its interior barely has any signs of use, and it looks like it never went off road. Steering is tight, clutch is great, etc. It drives like I would imagine a new Td5 to. And it's showing about 25,000 miles on the odometer. The story is that this one was involved in some insurance dispute and sat in a garage for years.

So I'm looking around for the computer port to plug the Nanocom into, and it's not there. I eventually find that someone has intentionally cut the wires to the port, taped them up, and hidden them under the body, above the transmission housing.

My thought is that maybe on this newer 18p engine, it could have a BCU like a Disco that would allow someone to see what the true mileage is with the Nanocom? Or a mechanic just really wants to make his life difficult each time he wants to scan the engine? I'm going to make a harness to read it with the Nanocom over the next couple of days which may shed some light on this... but how bizarre. My thought is that maybe the person selling it *thought* you could read the true mileage on a Defender-spec Td5, which I've not seen. Maybe this was his usual routine with Discos he was flipping or something.

After I found this I checked the vin on the body and frame, both match and do correspond to the right 110. And the ECU appears to be the original, as it has a factory sticker with the same vin on it. So at least that part looks legit...

As far as I know there is no 18p especially a 2002. Pre 2002 are 10p, late 2002 onward are 15p up till early 2007, when they become TDCIs.

A lot of people are thick as sh1t and cut the ports off not know what they are. That alone would put me off buying as you now can't check the ECU for faults without repairing the port.

I don't think I can read mileage on my Nanocom Evo but I may be wrong...

I know, I had never heard of an 18p either. This 110 was actually built at the factory in SA, and it appears to say "18P" on the engine block, and a quick google search shows other 18p Td5's in the SA area. But it looks identical to my 15p.

I can't read the mileage on my 15p Defender w/ the Nanocom, but apparently Disco II's had a "Valeo BCU" module that stores mileage in it that the Nanocom does read... thought perhaps the 18p may have something like that lurking around. We'll see once I hook up the Nanocom to this one...

You can't read the stored mileage with tester on D2 either, AFAIK on defenders they went up to 24P in 2006 but it's just a serial number the engines are all the same as 15Ps

Thanks, that's helpful.
Nanocom documentation states you can read the mileage off the Valeo BCU on a D2. Never messed with a D2 so I wouldn't know though.

Well, bankz5152, you were correct. It was a TAS (thick as sh!t) move by the previous owner. I ran jumper wires to the bare diagnostic wires,
plugged it into the nanocom and everything was correct. VIN matched the car's vin, etc. I guess this guy thought by cutting out the diagnostic port that no one would be able to easily figure out the correct mileage on this 110...

May be it was an attempt at security. If you can't get at the diagnostic port you can't change the ecu/AS10 security settings ???? Cheaper than a lock on the drags port ?

On some cars you can bypass the security and steal them via the diagnostic port so yes, maybe they removed it for that reason.

lightning said:

On some cars you can bypass the security and steal them via the diagnostic port so yes, maybe they removed it for that reason.

Click to expand...

Not the case for a locked Land Rover no matter what modell cos as long as it's immobilised the tester won't comunicate with the system... and cutting wires for security reason would be the uglyest bodge i've ever heard

I agree. But somebody may have read the scare stories in the press about the theft of BMW cars using that method and decided to cut off the diagnostic plug, without really knowing what they are doing.