Right then you lovely lot, I have a Saturday afternoon question that has stumped me thus far: my 2003 face lift D2 V8 ran just fine yesterday, albeit a rough idle and a noisy CAT -- which was my job to do today! On starting it this morning I had the following number warning lights on the diagram below...

No 1

No 11

No 27

It will not fire up, 'hill descent' and 'off road mode buttons' are not engaged and I have checked that the 4X4 L and H range stick has been engaged by mistake.

Diagnostically, the battery is less than a year old and has been tested this morning to have full charge..

All the lights and radio; fans and AC is working. It just refuses to crank over.

I also have a smell of petrol after the I walked away from the car. The fuel pump is making the right noises and the ride height is level. No leaks and ride hieght - no pump issues.

Anyone had the same symptoms and if so, is it something that can be fixed on my drive before I call a mobile mechanic? I have driven 400 miles this week on the road, without issue this week, it has been sat for four days - finally all the parts to swap out the exhaust have arrived this morning, which was my job of the day to do, now the sun is shining! and the usual oil, alternator belt and filter service was done last weekend prior to winter setting in...your assistance and knowledge in this matter is gratefully received.

 

No crank ?
I would check battery connections
and wires to starter connections at starter

 

Thank you RedWhiteCat,

I am avoiding looking at it until Wednesday when I can get a corned over from a neighbouring village with his diagnostic machine, he's a mechanic with years of 4x4, particularly LR knowledge behind him. He suggested over the phone yesterday it could be something as design as a new battery. Fingers crossed it is. I have been lucky with this D2 thus far, I hope the luck carries on into the new year as I just need to get through winter before I give it a full helping of TLC. I bought it to get me to farms in Derbyshire, Yorkshire, Cheshire and Cumbria for my masters degree research and it's never let me down. I was a little peeved yesterday as I had set out the day to give it a full filter, oil and fluids service ready for winter, replace the horrible old exhaust pipes the former owner had ignored in the vain hope it would sound like a Spitfire when the foot went down and change the sparks after a misfire had formed earlier last week, hence it being put away before I could get into it. Time to get on with work and earn to pay for this lump parked outside. The challenges of former owner syndrome, eh?

 

One of the best tools I've added is a battery charger. I'm surprised whenever I hook it up to top up the battery how low it can be. Sometimes down to 60% after a month. I charge the Disco up on a monthly basis and haven't been stranded, worth doing to potentially avoid issues like this. My bet is battery charge level.

 

Not cranking and "not cranking over" are two different things, which do you mean? Crank and no start or no crank at all?

 

Hi Dave, Thank you for your response.

It is trying to crank over, I can see the belt moving a quarter turn and then nothing - I removed one of the sparks today to see if I had flooded the engine trying to get it to turn over, thankfully no. The spark plug I removed was a bit of a state and had clearly been on the car a while. I do have a full set of new ones to put on, but first I will wait for the Mechanic with the correct equipment to perform a full diagnosis on Wednesday and move on from there. The lack of knowing what is happening is very frustrating, I tried to get it to turn over again this afternoon when I got back from work, without putting my foot on the accelerator...this time I had no warning lights and no bonging sounds, I can hear the engine trying to start, trying to turn over, the fuel pump and SLS making a noise in the back as normal, but it's just not getting there. Scratching my head isn't getting me closer to an answer either.

 

I was hoping that this would be the case Brandon, I have been away for a few days and it has only been on a combination of three short journeys since I picked it up and drove it 300 miles to my home in the north of England. I think I may have put on just over a 1000 miles since September, I will be getting my local mobile mechanic to check this first before he performs a full diagnosis on Wednesday. It was bought as an ongoing project car, after loosing my old D1 300TDi to a 20ton truck earlier this year. If it were not important to get this thing on the road to get me to Farms in the local four counties around me to support my Masters research, I would be less 'animated' about the loss of power. I shall take your lead in keeping an eye and a regular top up from now on, just to be on the safe side. Thank you for your response.