My 04 Disco, 92000 miles, has been giving me a hard time starting cold for the past 2-3 months, if it has been running or started then it cranks fine, but if it sits for more than an hour it takes 3 attempts at cranking to start it up. Well this past Monday I was driving and it just shut off. Luckily I was near a parking lot so I pulled in and trying cranking it...no luck, just killed the battery from trying to crank it so many times. Had it towed back to the house and bought a crank sensor for it since that it was I was told it probably was, well I just finished changing the sensor and it still won't crank, just keep trying to. Every few attempts it'll sputter like it's going to crank but never does. Is this a fuel pump issue or is there some other (cheaper) route I can go with, Mike told me about buying the Airtex E3270 and fixing it that way. I just want to make sure it is indeed the fuel pump, but before I buy a new pump I just wanted to see if anyone had any suggestions on another route???

 

Before changing the CKP did you check for spark? If you had spark, then fuel problems were indicated. The multiple tries to start indicate pressure is building up, just not very fast. Just turning on key and having pump run a few seconds several times in a row does the same thing.

There is a fuel pressure test point on the rear corner under the top section of the intake, if you can get a flex hose pressure gauge on it, you can see if you are getting fuel pressure. If you are getting spark, then CKP may not be the issue; but that leaves fuel. Fuel pump and fuel filter are all inside the tank. Be sure inertia switch is reset on firewall.

 

ok so i checked the inertia switch and it had indeed tripped, i pressed it to reset it, i went to crank and it seemed like it was about to start, well it kind of did but it just sputtered for just a second but that's more than what it has been doing, any new ideas? becuase i think its getting fuel because i can smell it coming from the exhaust...

 

If it starts back up after running fine and takes sit time to do a hard start again, there could be a pressure leak in the fuel lines from a bad valve. I'm not familiar with the fuel system on discos so I'm speaking in generalities. My trans am did that when then pump was on its way out, it would start/run fine warm, but if it say a few hours it would crank for a LONG time before starting up. once it did, you could turn it off then back on immediatly without the delay again. it was made far worse if the tank was less then half full or less, the less fuel in the tank had a direct correlation on crank time. I didnt actually end up needing a new pump, just a hose had come lose in the simliar manner in trying to drink from a straw with a hole in it

 

now that you mention it, the disco use to throw the p0455 code, it went away after a while but never thought much more about it since it never came back on

 

the dreaded 0455... could be a gas cap, purge valve, trickle valve, or fuel neck filler line.