1997 Land Rover Discovery Won't Start

[laselvasurf]

Hello, I've been doing some research on my problem and thought I'd create a new thread incase I was missing something obvious. I have a 1997 Land Rover Discovery. It has 140k. I have owned it about a year and absolutely love it. It is my second vehicle, so I have only put about 10k on it over the last year, but it has ran extremely well up until this last week. I use it quite a bit to get my mt bike to different trails, and when I got back from a ride on Saturday, it wouldn't start. I ended up riding the 20 miles home and came back to it later than night when it was around 40 degrees. It fired right up, no problems. I drove it home and it stalled coming down my driveway. It will now start if I let it sit for 10 hours or so, it will run for about 2 minutes, then die. When I try and re-start it will crank, but won't fire. My first thought was fuel temp sensor, because it was quite warm when I got back from my bike ride, and I had a check engine light on about 2 weeks ago and the code read P0183. I reset the CEL and it never came back on. I replaced the fuel temp sensor and the rover started right up and ran for about 10 minutes. Then, it died and I couldn't start it again. Since then I have done some investigating... I checked the fuel pressure on the fuel rail when I turn the key to position 2, I can hear the relay click on and the fuel pressure doesn't go above 1-2psi. It stays there even after the fuel relay clicks off. I checked the fuel system fuse and replaced the fuel pump fuse. I checked the fuel pump fuse socket and it reads 3volts when the relay is on and 0 when it clicks off. I checked the voltage at the fuel pump and it is reading 5.5v consistently when the key is in position 2. I'm doing this alone at the moment, so I can't get voltages when I try and start. My next thoughts are: - Crankshaft position sensor (where is this located exactly so I can check the wires to it?). - Fuel pump relay, though I'm thinking this isn't the problem - Fuel filter. I haven't replaced it and don't have any vehicle history, though it doesn't look too rusted, so it can't be too old. - Fuel Pump. I hope this isn't gone, as it's a pretty pricy replacement, but at this point, I just want my rover back! If anyone has any ideas on how I can test further to narrow down the exact issue, please let me know! Oh, and here is a picture of my rover for reference

[Spike555]

Start with the fuel filter.
Then the multi function relay.
Then the fuel pump.
To check the crank sensor remove a spark plug, reattach the plug wire and have a friend crank the engine over, if there is no spark then it is a bad crank sensor.

[Savannah Buzz]

Spike's right.

And fuel temp sensor won't make no-start, unless the engine is overheated on hot day. It basically tells the ECU to pulse injectors more to flush out any really hot fuel with bubbles in it and cool off the fuel rail with fresh fuel from the tank. Just like the pump nozzle gets cool in your hand pumping gas.

If you are working as a one man crew, you can use alligator clips and a length of speaker wire to make your meter leads where you can hold meter and start truck at same time. The high impedance of the meter makes another 20 - 100 feet of meter lead of no importance on raw volts measures.

[LeakyDisco]

While not a scientific test, try lightly tapping on the top of fuel pump (after gaining access to it) as the truck is starting to die at idle.

When mine went out it would fire up in the morning and run for a minute or two before sputtering and dying. Tapping on the pump caused it to run for another 30 seconds; I could keep it idling by tapping at that interval.

[thehun]

I had the same issue...i thought about the same parts needed replacement

Had my charging system checked...everytime checked out fine..battery alternator and all.... just FYI (my battery tested fine but it had a bad cell that would drop charge really fast)

Went to battery store replaced it with 800CCA battery..problem solved

[laselvasurf]

Thank you for all the info everyone! I purchased a fuel filter and plan on installing it first thing tomorrow morning before heading off to family Christmas obligations. Hopefully that will solve the problem. If not, I'll be trying some of the tips/tricks you guys mentioned. I tried hooking my battery up to a charger for about 4 hours today, and it still had the same problem. The battery is about 3 years old, so it should still be good, but I'll definitely keep that in my mind as a point of failure!

Thank you again for all the information, this forum is awesome!!

[thehun]

My battery was 2 yrs old...only way to check is not at your local autozone or oreilys or napa but take it to a battery shop where they tell you how many cranking amps the battery can produce....mine was rated at 700CA and only produced 400 fully charged....Rover needs something like 550-600CA...so now I have 1000CA and 800CCA...no issues

[Savannah Buzz]

IMHO - 3 year old battery has served enough time - they are built to expire - If you have a volt meter, measure volts with truck OFF. Turn on head lights, should not drop below 12.6, a dead cell will make it drop like a stone with any heavy load.

[laselvasurf]

I changed out my fuel filter, started it up and it ran for about 15 minutes. I thought I was in the clear! Then, it died. Now, it won't start up again.

However, I did hear my fuel pump actually working when I would turn the key to pos2 for the first time today. I did remove the + lead on the battery while doing the job, which took about 45 minutes. So, now I'm beginning to think it's relay/ecu related. The rover died just as it started to get warm.

I also checked the battery, mft date 9/09. And when I have the rover off, I'm getting a constant 12.4V, as soon as I turn on my headlights it drops to 11.6. I was reading through the RAVE and found that the ecu will cut fuel to the engine if it senses a drop in voltage.

As for the fuel pump relay, where is it located and what am I looking for? A bunch of posts seem to say that it is a standard relay that could be switched out easily for a stock relay. But then when I try and find the specific part, a larger all black box comes up for well over $100. Not sure if I have a different model than others?

Thanks again for everyone's help. Luckily I have all of this next week off, so I'll be able to spend some time getting my rover back on/off the road!


UPDATE:
I spent another couple hours troubleshooting... Here is what I found:

- Fuel Pump Relay clicks on with key at pos2 and clicks again after 20 seconds or so

- Fuel pump no longer comes on at all(It did right after replacing the fuel filter, thinking battery disconnect for 45 minutes had something to do with it?)

- Plugged in my OBDII reader to see if there were any codes and sure enough, there was the same fuel temperature sensor A circuit high input (P0183)

I'm going back and forth on my logic here... Either my fuel pump relay is bad, but I'm fairly certain power for the pump comes directly from ECU? Which would mean as long as the car fires up to begin with, and the relay clicks on and off correctly, it should be ok.

Next thing to check would be the fuel pump. Is it possible that the fuel pump would function for a certain amount of time and then shut off after getting "tired"? I was thinking I could hot-wire the pump to test this theory, though I'm not certain on how to do that and don't want to send 12v down the wrong line. Anyone have any tips/how-to on hot-wiring the fuel pump?

Next thing I am thinking is that it has to be ECU related if fuel pump works, then shuts off. Crankshaft position sensor a possibility here? Either that or the fuel temp sensor I purchased and installed might be bad? Battery also falls into this category of failure, maybe drop of voltage causing ECU to kill the fuel pump?

I'm off to the family's house for Christmas dinner, so I'm going to think on it for a while and see if I can figure anything out. As always, any input/ideas would be much appreciated! Thanks!

[Spike555]

There is no single fuel pump relay on your truck, it is the multi function relay, and yes it is $100 new.
But it is cheaper than a fuel pump.
It sounds to me like your fuel pump is toast, once it gets warm it seizes up and shuts down.