Hello all. The first problem has just arisen on my son's 10 reg XS auto since he bought the car in January. It was fine this morning when he went to work but on starting the drive home at lunchtime he'd only driven a few hundred yds when it cut out. It would restart but only run for a very short time. AA man has diagnosed water (it p'd down here last night) in the engine wiring loom which has tracked through to 1 of the injectors. He says it'll need new wiring-not sure how much-and possible computer gubbins depending on where the water has tracked to. A figure of £1500 has been mentioned!

Has anyone come across this before? It seems an odd thing to happen and I've never come across it in all my yrs (nearly 60) of car ownership, although for many of those years the only thing water got into was the distributor cap.

The other problem is every garage my son's contacted is snowed under with work and can't look at the car for weeks. It never rains but.....

Any comments/advice will be much appreciated.

Thanks,
Keith

I can not offer any help, but I know what it’s like with the garages being busy etc. our freelander broke down a month ago and still sitting on the driveway. I think it is all part and parcel of owning a Landrover.

Any idea how the water got into the loom was any deep wading done at all? seems a very odd diagnosis cannot see how water has got up to the injector via the wiring , worth getting a second opinion was any fault codes read? I would have suspected the crank sensor if anything. 2013 FL2 XS.
Defender 90 300 TDi.
Defender 90 300 TDi CSW.
1964 MGB Roadster.
1944 Willys MB "Jeep" with bullet holes. (gone)
17 hand Irish Drought Thoroughbred (mostly lame)
Nagging Old Boiler.

Last edited by Rommel on 14th May 2024 4:42 pm. Edited 2 times in total

Bit more info-the car has done about 60k miles, with excellent service history, and the AA man couldn't see where the water was getting in.

Really needs Error Codes read, to see what and were the FL2 thinks the problem is.

Hard to see from your post how the AA man arrived at his diagnosis of loom, I would have thought that moisture would be more likely in connectors.

If you had extreme rain, has it got into the fuel system, unlikely, but possible.

Error codes, please. FL2 XS SD4 Auto 2010 2012-2017 (21k - 91k miles) (MY2011)
FL2 Metropolis SD4 Auto 2014 2017- (16k - 76k+ miles) (MY2015)

I don't know what made the AA man look at the injectors in the first place but he apparently found 1 of the connectors to have moisture in it, dried it, several times, and each time the connector became wet again, so he concluded the moisture was coming through the wiring as presumably there's nowhere else it could come from.

Could the loom have been rubbing on something until, over time, the outer sheathing was damaged, the inner got wet and the moisture made its way via capillary action to the injector connector?

On some Jaguar XFs there was a problem with the connector to the washer bottle. A faulty seal allowed water into the connector, the water tracked up the cable to a fuse box/control box and caused corrosion meaning that unit had to be replaced-very expensive repair caused by failure of a cheap component. Does the relevant bit of the wiring loom on the FL2 come into contact with e.g. the cooling system where water might get into the loom and make its way to the injector?

My son has found he can get a 2nd hand section of the loom relatively cheaply but there's no point in doing the swap without knowing what went wrong, although I suppose you might have to remove the old section of loom to examine it closely for damage.

Does anyone know what would be involved in doing the job? Is it simply a case of methodically and carefully changing easily accessible connectors, 1 at a time, or have LR done their best to make it as difficult as possble?

This thread (see link) suffered suspected water ingress, unfortunately the OP does not appear to let us know what happened to cure problem.

https://www.freel2.com/forum/topic38422.html?highlight=water

You will see, amongst the suggestions, that giving it the hairdryer treatment, disconnecting the battery, hard reset, disconnecting/drying/cleaning all the connectors, are amongst the suggestions.

I would start by searching the forum for 'water'

https://www.freel2.com/forum/search.php?se...rch_time=0

I think you should dig deeper and investigate before changing the loom - it may turn out to be simple ! FL2 XS SD4 Auto 2010 2012-2017 (21k - 91k miles) (MY2011)
FL2 Metropolis SD4 Auto 2014 2017- (16k - 76k+ miles) (MY2015)

Thanks for the replies. I have already searched the forum, before my original post, but obviously didn't choose the right words. Anyway, I think we'll do as suggested-start with the simple stuff and work up to the more complicated. It can't be co-incidence that last night we had a prolonged spell of heavy rain and today there's a problem with water where water shouldn't be.

I'll let you know if we find anything but it might take a few days.

I can't see how water can get into the injector harness. And if it did I can't see it stopping the engine. These engines run quite happily on 2 cylinders, ok they will run rough, but they won't just cut out.

If the harness is suspected, then a replacement second hand engine harness can be fitted in a couple of hours. It's not difficult, and second hand parts are plentiful, so it wouldn't cost that much.
However I reckon the issue is elsewhere. 2009 Rimini Red SE TD4. Soon to be sold.
Hyundai Ioniq 5 Ultimate on order.
Gone. 2006 Tonga Green i6 HSE.

@KeithB
What fault codes are coming up ?

An OBD2 socket reader and phone app are pretty much standard tools for a home mechanic these days. Jules

I am beginning to feel that the answer may lie in finding where exactly the water is coming from, and is it only escaping when the engine is running.
I cannot think of an easy fault that would allow water to stop a diesel, and then allow it to start and run, even for a while.
Go careful as if it's a hot fine spray, you may get scolded when you uncover it.
I take it that there is no oil in water, or vice versa - internal leak? FL2 XS SD4 Auto 2010 2012-2017 (21k - 91k miles) (MY2011)
FL2 Metropolis SD4 Auto 2014 2017- (16k - 76k+ miles) (MY2015)

I'm guessing the breakdown tech was talking BS.
Water in a single injector harness won't stop the engine running, I doubt it would even cause a misfire. It's not like an injector is a spark plug. 2009 Rimini Red SE TD4. Soon to be sold.
Hyundai Ioniq 5 Ultimate on order.
Gone. 2006 Tonga Green i6 HSE.

It must be quite hard as a breakdown mechanic as your expected to know everything about so many different makes and models, whereas a main dealer mechanic only works on that particular range. I can not judge as I know nothing. 🤣

Yes it is hard, and the vehicle is always stuck on some busy road, in rain, where the driver just wants to get home.
Been there, done that for 5 years, in all weather's, and all time's of the day or night.
It's one of the main reasons I left the automotive industry. 2009 Rimini Red SE TD4. Soon to be sold.
Hyundai Ioniq 5 Ultimate on order.
Gone. 2006 Tonga Green i6 HSE.

Thanks for the continued interest, folks. It's a bit of a mystery. There seems to be no logical explanation. My son says the AA chap dried and cleaned the connector and although the engine started it only ran for a few seconds. I find it hard to believe sufficient moisture would track through the wiring in such a short time to cause a problem. And I'm sure if there was a different source of the water it would be visible.

Anyway I've seen on ebay what appears to be the last section of the wiring harness connecting to the injectors and they're quite cheap so we're going to get 1 and swap them over. It will either cure the problem or tell us, at minimal cost, the problem lies elsewhere. After that I fear it'll be for the professionals to sort.

Of course the car has been out in the sun all day today so it might be fine tomorrow!

I'll let you all know how we get on.