I replaced the motor on my 2003 Discovery about a year ago. The original 4.6L was a real lemon. Had the horrible clacking noise and about a year ago it mercifully died. Replaced it with a 2000 4.0L which seems to be a great engine. No noticeable power loss. And quiet. Wonderfully quiet. I recently had some work done on it and now the vehicle quits after it warms up. Was first told it was the alternator. Replaced that and still have the same problem. Then was told there was interference with the alarm system so that was disconnected. Same problem. I had it at home and relied on a local shop rather than my regular mechanic. My mechanic is telling me there is only one sensor that can cause that problem. I'm scheduled to have it towed to him Tuesday morning. He is quite far and just the tow is $150. I'm wondering, if it's just one sensor, does anyone know which one or how to figure it out? Maybe I can sort the problem out myself before Tuesday and save some money. It has never happened before with either engine. Starts strong and has plenty of battery. Runs strong at first and then multiple lights (seems like all of them sometimes) flicker and it dies while driving. Ideas? Incidentally, I want to get a good reader. Originally wanted one just to clear the three amigos. That fault has only happened once and fortunately I was with the Land Rover Club and someone had one and was able to reset it. I never want to be out in the middle of nowhere without the ability to correct that fault. Now, there are much more sophisticated readers available and I would like to get one and start doing more of the work on the vehicle myself. I'm not sure which reader to get for this purpose and have looked at several. I don't know enough to know what I'm looking at. In the short term, I would like to fix what sounds like a pretty simple thing and get the vehicle running again. Long term, I would like to select a good reader and transition into doing much more of the work myself.

 

The crankshaft position sensor kind of fits the bill for what you are describing. But from my experience there aren’t any flickering lights or other symptoms, it just up and dies when it gets warm. It’s a $50 part and not hard to replace. Well, not technically hard, just hard on your resolve to replace it.

 

I think you may be correct. My mechanic mentioned that sensor. Is this a specialty part? Can I get it or order it at an auto parts store? How is it hard on my resolve to replace it? Is it difficult to get to? Do I have to remove a lot of other things to reach it. I have not done this before and wouldn't know a crankshaft position sensor from a hole int the ground. Where do I find one? I am willing to order it and wait a couple of days from one of the Rover specific vendors. I would much rather do it myself.

 

Here’s the link to the part on amazon


There are a lot of good posts on this forum which go about explaining how to replace it. Do a search to find them, they do a much better job than I could. Like I said, it’s not hard per se, you don’t need to remove anything to get at it and don’t need anything more than a 1/4” ratchet set to remove and replace. That being said, it’s in a bit of a tight spot so you do a lot of blind reaching and feeling around to work on it.

This was literally the first repair I did on my rover, on my back under the truck in the driveway. Took me about 45 minutes but a practiced hand could probably do it in 20. Happy to answer any questions on it.

 

The connector that is what is hard, used up many foul works in 3 languages getting that thing disconnected and reconnected.

 

Replaced it today and so far so good! Vehicle started and I drove it for about 20 or 25 minutes without it dying. I think you saved me a bunch of money. Thank you.

 

Excellent! Glad we could help out. I bought my D2 dirt cheap off of a flat bed trailer because I was able to correctly diagnose the crankshaft position sensor as the fault after only 20 or so minutes. Thankfully I was right and she fired right up after the swap and kept going!

 

The way to diagnose the crank position sensor to see if faulty:
After the vehicle dies and won't restart, plug in your OBDII reader, set the reader to read engine rpm's, then turn engine over and see if the rpm's are showing cranking rpm's, If not, and it just registers 0, then the sensor is bad.

 

I remember disco mike and the boys back in the day was to carry water with you
so if this happen to dump water on top of sensor to cool it off lol