Acceleration and Idle Problems
 

Hello all,

Although I am a new member to the forum, I am not new to the forum as I have been researching for my 2002 Disco 2 a lot in the year that I have owned.

In that year, it drove like a dream and did not have any problems whatsoever however in the past couple of weeks, there have been a huge number of problems. I noticed the white smoke out of the exhaust and overheating and immediately had the gaskets replaced. While there, I learned that the power steering pump was going out as well as the master cylinder leaking. I am having all of these repairs done and test drove the truck to see how it felt. I noticed a couple of very weird things when accelerating from a stop. It seems that it hesitates to accelerate from a stopped position before catching and lurching forward rather quickly. The other issue is that it seems to not be turning over very quickly when starting from hot or cold. It takes a second for the engine to come on from the key turning. Any ideas to any of the problems I am having? I would greatly appreciate any advice that you can give as I have big plans for my disco and need to get it in working order!

Thanks in advance for the help.

Connor

Forgot to add that when at idle from a cold start, the engine is having a weak idle and thought this was due to the head gaskets but that does not seem to be the case.

Thanks again

If cold where you are, 5W40 Shell Rotella syn is a good oil to run that can help with morning slow to turn over. But if slow all the time, could also be electrical problems, like battery, battery conector corroded, battery ground connector corroded, starter wiring, or starter itself.

Performance issues without codes are frequently solved by new wires and plugs, cleaning the throttle body, and if needed, the MAF (which should be done with engine cold with a compound like CRC made for that purpose), and cleaning the IACV.

Don't ignore the transmission service - fluid change and filter, at or ahead of schedule (30,000 miles).

Idle and poor throttle response could be an issue with the MAF, could also be a crank sensor issue. Could be as simple as a HT lead not fully seated on the plug or coil post from the HG repair, or something else entirely. Also make sure all the vacuum lines are plugged in.

Start with the obvious things since someone else was working on your engine like all lines plugged in where they should be, all connectors fully seated, etc.

Is your service engine light even working? With all your issues I would expect some fault codes.
Have you serviced and or checked the tranny fluid level?

Thank you for the quick responses!

I live in the Atlanta area so my days are not too cold and I don't think that is what is causing the slow turnover.

It's strange you ask about the service engine light because it came on this morning and I will be getting the fault codes this afternoon to come back with more information. I will try out the simple things later today when with the truck and see where that gets me.

Thanks for the help

Connor

sounds electrical, bad grounds, bad coils, bad plugs, or bad connections to all of the above. the whole top end comes apart during a hgasket repair, it would be easy to overlook connecting something tightly, or perhaps something was knocked loose or pinched? start simple, battery terminals, starter wires, igntion wires on plugs and back at coils, airfilter clogged, vac leak, maf dirty, fuel pressure etc.

the codes will DEF help narrow it down, and if you are going to own your disco long term, id pick up a cheap code reader asap., especially if you are going to come to the forum for diy, youll appreciate it!

Well, I'm 250 miles south east of you, it was 19F last week, and that's cold for us wimpy flantlanders. I made the switch to 5W40 and it cranks faster and oil PSI warning light goes out quicker.

But I re-read your post. If you mean that you turn the key, and there is a delay before any click or starter begins to rotate the engine, that can be a starter relay. Yours is in the underhood fuse box, "in-board" row of relays, 2nd one from the end where the large wires are terminated in the box. When someone turns the key, that one should click. Can try swapping with another relay. If that relay does not "click" when key is turned, you have other problems.

What type of hesitation would a vac leak cause on these trucks. I had an old Jetta beater a while ago that did this, and tracking it was a pain. Any tiles for him to track down vacuum leaks? Also, I'm thinking it could be trans related too for you, so at least maybe do fluid if not done. My trans seems to be shifting odd lately but fluid is new, so i need to check mine out.

Okay finally got the codes and not good news while I was there. The guy who got the codes said that he has never seen this many codes on any vehicle he has tested. However, keep in my mind that my codes were not reset after the head job because the guy I had do it a retired Land Rover worker and did not have a code reader/resetter. Here are he codes:

PO141
PO161
PO160
PO135
PO155
PO300
PO140
P1319
PO134
PO154
P1300
P1889
P445
P448
PO102
PO340

This got me pretty worried considering the number of codes that came out.
Again any help would be appreciated!

Thanks

Connor