My girlfriend's 420 GSDi conked out and died this morning.

It occasionally loses power and lurches, with no response to the throttle pedal. When I experienced this myself, I remember it held its revs just above idle so possibly a TPS fault?

Following her home last night, she told me a warning light came on (engine management light?) - the orange one that looks like an engine.

This morning, it was losing power again and the light was on again. It belched out some smoke and sputtered and died, and wouldn't re-start.




We'd like to fix the car if possible, but I don't have any experience working on L series engines and I'm not overly familiar with diesel engines full stop so I'd like a little guidance where to look first off please :)

I'm guessing the engine light means the car has recorded a fault code? If so, is there anyone in the Oxted / Tunbridge Wells area who can read it for me? If there's no one local, are those fault code readers I've seen for sale in Halfords any good?

I've not had a chance to look at the car myself yet - the symptoms described when it conked out this morning are what was relayed to me by my g/f.

We drove the car to France over the Christmas period where it performed faultlessly, apart from struggling to start in the cold (glow plugs need changing as it starts immediately when even slightly warm).

Head gasket was replaced around 10,000 miles ago but when I changed the oil before going to France for Christmas, the oil was fine and it wasn't losing water. The car has around 121,000 miles on the clock.



Thanks in advance :)

Pop over to the Diesel forum for a bit more of a response, but I'd be suspecting a TPS problem, or perhaps a problem with the wiring to #1 injector. If you take the plastic cover off the engine you can see the wiring to the injector nearest the driver side, thats what needs looking at.

As for the poor starting, you could have a slight problem with air getting into the lines, it's fairly common on the L-series for the injector leak off pipes (braided pipes) to wear out and let air in, and for the priming bulb/lines to perish a little and let air in through there, so check them out if you can.

Hope this helps.

Presumably I'm looking for damaged / broken wires or corroded connections to the injectors?

I hadn't even given the priming circuit a thought - I'll have a good look at that when I get a chance to see the car in daylight.


Thanks :)

I had something similar to this happen on my SLDi (smoke, engine light, stalled, hard to restart) - I had been running Biodiesel at the time, so suspected that may be having an affect, so ceased this and put injector cleaner in and changed the fuel filter etc...

However, I have since discovered that the fuel pipes going between each injector are badly corroded/falling to bits, and there has been diesel leaking down the front of the engine, so I assume this was the cause of the problems. So you should check these.

I have not replaced mine as yet, but I believe they are not too expensive to replace all 4 (probably about a fiver or so), im just lazy lol (and have been using the gf's car most of the time, although mine has run perfect since i played about with them a bit).

Well it's #1 injector thats got any wires, as it's bless with a lift sensor - the wires are a bit too short and tend to chafe sometimes, but it'll pay to inspect the plug if you can get it off!

Here (http://forums.mg-rover.org/showthread.php?t=278944) is a thread relating to what I believe to be the problem with mine. Surprisingly only posted today.

Don't think that will stop the car in it's tracks, but it will be worth looking at with the poor starting and all.

I've been on the phone to my other half's dad and relayed comments and suggestions from this thread.

The connector block to No.1 injector was very heavily corroded. Now it's been cleared up the car apparently seems to be running okay. As it's an intermittent fault, obviously only time will tell, but touch wood I think it may have sorted it.

He's been checking and cleaning the easily accessible electrical connectors under the bonnet this evening, and the one to the injector was apparently far more corroded than any of the others.

We will give the car a more thorough going over with the benefit of daylight at the weekend.

Thanks everyone for your help and I'll let you know if we get any further problems :)





Chris

Gimme a shout if you need any help Chris.

Gimme a shout if you need any help Chris.

Will do, thanks mate :)

I still have your number on my phone from the last time we met, unless you've changed your number since then?

We did think of popping down to you to get the fault codes read, but that only helps us if we can drive the car down to you in the first place :D

No problems since cleaning up the connector on the injector :)

Seems to be sorted now, so thank you very much everyone :)

w00t, aren't I clever :lol:

Glad you got it sorted, another L-series lives to fight another day :D

This one's a bit of a bruiser. Poor thing's coped with Gem's "maintenance" for years. :lol:

It'll be something truly cataclysmic that finally kills it :D

Turbo inlet seals going ought to do the job... The car runs on the engine oil, revs away to it's maximum until it chucks a con-rod or similar :lol:

Don't tell her that whatever you do :lol:

Well this certainly sounds a lot like my problem aswell. Though if it's just a bad connection why does it only cause the loss of revs so infrequently and how come it starts up ok each time after a couple of minutes of been turned off?

thanks andrew

That's the joy of tempermental electrical gremlins!!

I had the same sort of thing on my bike with the headlight randomly cutting out.

I'd imagine atmospheric conditions (temperature, humidity) as well as vibrations are the reason for intermittant faults.

Give it a good clean up with contact cleaner and a stiff brush and see how it goes :)

So far as I know the fault hasn't returned in the other half's long-suffering car since cleaning up that connector.

Go on Chris, scare the crap out of the engine by giving it an oil change..... you know you want to!

I did - just before we took it to France at Christmas :D

I would change it again, but the shock would be too much for the poor thing. I changed a wheel, pumped the tyres up and filled up the washers this week. Don't want to kill it with kindness :lol:

I have just got round to looking at this as it happened again the other day just after i had come of a duel carriage way and was accelerating off from some traffic lights. Does anyone know if heat plays a part in this problem as it has only ever happened after i have been driving for a while and the engine is warmed up.

Anyway after taking the plastic cover of the engine i wasn't sure what i was looking for, i assume it's the black wire that goes direct into the injector but it just seems to disappear inside with no connection on the outside so do you need to take the injector of to inspect the cable?

also the number 1 injector looks pretty rusty compared to the others is it ok to put anything on it yo treat the rust?


thanks kuliand

the wire is built into the injector, so follow it to the other end to get the conenctor if my memory serves me correct :)

the outside of the injector should be fine to just be cleaned up as it is the casing, but other than making it easilr to pull out there is not a huge amount of point to doing so.

If you do remove the injectors make sure you get some new copper washers to go with them when you refit it :)

Ah ok i was looking for a connection at the injector itself, i will take another look then.

If the cable looks ok is it highly likely that the sensor itself has died or is it possible another sensor is faulty like the crank case sensor?


thanks.