Horrendous tale of woe................help?

[DSdriver]

A runaway diesel can be stopped by spraying the contents of a CO2 fire extinguisher (or a BCF/Halon one if you don't mind breaking the law) into its air intake. GR11 if you have one to hand

 

Stuff anything that will prevent the air getting into the engine into the air filter opening to starve the combustion of oxygen.*

 

*This is the advice I was given should such a thing happen to my boat engine which is only a single cylinder. I have not had the opportunity to try it for effectiveness and have no idea if it will work on a multicylinder modern diesel. I did see a boat in Holland grenade it's engine a few years ago. The owner was just sitting at the helm totally oblivious to what was going on until it was too late to do anything.

[Shep Shepherd]

A runaway diesel can be stopped by spraying the contents of a CO2 fire extinguisher (or a BCF/Halon one if you don't mind breaking the law) into its air intake. GR11 if you have one to hand

 

Stuff anything that will prevent the air getting into the engine into the air filter opening to starve the combustion of oxygen.*

 

*This is the advice I was given should such a thing happen to my boat engine which is only a single cylinder. I have not had the opportunity to try it for effectiveness and have no idea if it will work on a multicylinder modern diesel. I did see a boat in Holland grenade it's engine a few years ago. The owner was just sitting at the helm totally oblivious to what was going on until it was too late to do anything.

 

Can't say that I've ever tried it either, but I imagine that it would be pretty effective, providing that you have something suitable to stuff into the intake to hand

 

I've only ever experienced a diesel engine runaway once, the vehicle in question being a horribly knackered ex-Central Electricity Generating Board (remember them?) pre-facelift Transit mark 2 with a 2.4 4-cylinder 'York' engine. I remember that the van's driver had to collect bits of con-rod from the road after the engine went bang

[pompei]

Are there any general preventative steps to take to prevent diesels from doing this? (worried 1.9 Saab)

[eddyramrod]

Worried 2.5 Isuzu too!

[ashmicro]

Lob in a petrol engine? I duuno, I suppose all you can realistically do is change the oil/filter/fuel filter and make sure breathers aren't blocked with cack. You really shouldn't have to be tearing out injectors and turbochargers "just to check", although I bet Scary could rattle out some BBC Basic app, or suggest the possible application of a scope in this effort. He seems to have this stuff well nailed down.

[scaryoldcortina]

err.. what, me? I was going to say don't try and stop a runaway diesel by stuffing your hat into the air intake if you are fond of the hat (om nom hat sez landrover...) but in terms of general advice, keep an eye on your oil level - if it drops or rises inexplicably then there is a good chance of a "situation" occuring. (drops could be turbo seals, rises could be leaky injectors diluting the oil with diesel)

 

I saw a laguna 1.9 auto run away to destruction on the MoT centre forecourt a while ago - I was testing and stuck my head out to see who was revving the nuts off something. Mechanic took a quick look at the situation and then shut the bonnet and walked away from it. To it's credit, it managed about 5 minutes at full chat before running out of oil to burn and stopping. Wouldn't even turn after that though. AA took it away, never seen again.

[Pete-M]

The gearboxes come from ZF in Germany and are fitted to numerous BMWs, Merc, Jags etc so its not as though you can say its a piece of chocolate/cheese crap.

 

ZF4HP22. It's crap. If you put more than 280 lb ft through it.

[STUNO]

Toyotas can do it too

[retrogeezer]

That's quite impressive - never seen that happen before.

[gdhaydock]

Two autoboxes?

 

So you bought an 11 year old 4x4 with nearly 150k on the clock and a gearbox went bang. Its not great but its not like it happened before its first birthday after you'd babied it for 3k miles.

But what happened to number 2?

The gearboxes come from ZF in Germany and are fitted to numerous BMWs, Merc, Jags etc so its not as though you can say its a piece of chocolate/cheese crap.

Unless you spend your days recovering dead artics in hilly areas then I suspect the "transmission specialist" needs a good talking to.

 

Yes, two autoboxes, first one was fitted by previous owner just before I bought it, came with a 12 month warranty and failed after 13 months - original fitter disappeared off the face of the earth. 2nd one fitted last week, by LR independent specialist (due to a serious amount of can't be arsedness on my part and not wanting to fit an auto box) only issue we could find with the fitting of last years box was that the breather pipe had been routed too close to the exhaust and melted, thus stopping it from breathing. Transmission oil looked & smelled severely burnt and a flush / refill didn't make it work - so replacement gearbox it was.

 

I suspect the previous owner decided to sell after the first box had lunched itself. You win some, you lose some, definitely lost on this one

[Pete-M]

You did the right thing getting someone else to change the 'box. I replaced to one in my old Rangey classic and it's not a job I'll ever consider doing again. Ballache of a job.

 

That's how I know the torque limit is 280 lb ft. I'd put about 350 lb ft through it and it died noisily after about 70 miles. Blew a couple of clutch packs losing 1st, 2nd and reverse. Bloody thing threw it's hand in 100 miles from home which meant caning it mercilessly until it selected 3rd and not slowing down until I got home.

[Bren]

I just think it is general LR/RR build quality.

 

I used to know a mechanic who worked on a local constabularies fleet of vehicles.

 

He told me some RR with petrol engines were on their THIRD power unit in 100k. Sensibly, the force dispensed with them and bought X5's instead.

[ashmicro]

I'd love to see an X5 take this kind of punishment and still motor on.

 

[HereHareHere]

I'd just love to see an X5 take that kind of punishment.

[M'coli]

Me too, I'd love to see them being dealt that sort of abuse. Only in civilian guise mind you...

[Father Ted]

A runaway diesel can be stopped by spraying the contents of a CO2 fire extinguisher (or a BCF/Halon one if you don't mind breaking the law) into its air intake. GR11 if you have one to hand

 

Stuff anything that will prevent the air getting into the engine into the air filter opening to starve the combustion of oxygen.*

 

*This is the advice I was given should such a thing happen to my boat engine which is only a single cylinder. I have not had the opportunity to try it for effectiveness and have no idea if it will work on a multicylinder modern diesel. I did see a boat in Holland grenade it's engine a few years ago. The owner was just sitting at the helm totally oblivious to what was going on until it was too late to do anything.

Did we not have this conversation on another thread - whilst a CO2 extinguisher would probably stop the engine, the resultant thermal shock would probably cause damage as well. You may as well use a water extinguisher and just let it hydraulic itself to death.

[jakebullet]

A brief guide to stopping a runaway with some old overalls:

 

Must say I'm not liking this thread given my disco TD5 is on 165 K and afaik on original parts. Hopefully I've got a good one.

[dollywobbler]

A brief guide to stopping a runaway with some old overalls:

 

Must say I'm not liking this thread given my disco TD5 is on 165 K and afaik on original parts. Hopefully I've got a good one.

 

I wonder if there's an 'oil overfill' sensor that could be fitted? That's the problem, that the engine effectively gets so full of oil/diesel that it starts getting sucked into the turbocharger causing runaway engine. Another favourite is the injector wiring loom which is inside the engine. Gets crudded up with oil, causing misfires but apparently oil can also run down the loom and into the ECU! It's a shame, because the TD5 is a fabulous sounding engine.

 

Next door neighbour's TD5 Disco is over 230k now, though I know he has replaced the turbo and injectors (and gearbox!).

[Rocket88]

From what the garage are saying [reading between the lines] I think they suspect the head is cracked. Apparently, they have someone interested in buying "as is". I've told the owner to snatch the blokes's hand off if it's a half decent offer, as I reckon the bloody thing is a huge can of worms with an ill fitting lid.