Freelander: Faulty ECU? Troubleshooting Guide.

Hello everyone,

I received a good suggestion to post my problem on this forum.

"After my Freelander (2.0L diesel, 72 kW, manufactured in 1999) wouldn't start on Saturday, I had it towed to a garage yesterday – not an authorized dealer. Now they say the engine control unit is broken. When I asked if I could buy a used one, the garage told me that they couldn't "deactivate" the immobilizer. As I'm not knowledgeable about these things, it would be helpful if someone could give me some advice."

Let me describe the "no-start" procedure:

On Saturday, with extremely cold weather, I tried to start the car, and the starter motor turned over, but it wouldn't start. My first thought was: dead battery. After charging the battery and several attempts to start the car, it still wouldn't start. On Monday, I tried starting it with starting fluid. Afterwards, it was discovered that no diesel fuel was being pumped through the fuel line.

"I've noticed that the interior dome light is no longer working. Yesterday, the car was towed to the workshop mentioned above, it stayed there overnight in a warm environment, but still wouldn't start."

Does anyone have any ideas on what else we can try? The next dealer is about 20 km away, and our Corsa probably won't be able to tow the Land Rover...

Thank you in advance, and Merry Christmas!
Danny.

Unfortunately, I don't know anything about that car.


What I can imagine is that the control unit is not receiving power, possibly due to a faulty or corroded ground connection.

Can errors in the MSG be read out?

'Please read my post. My Bora TDI won't start. I had the same problem with my Bora. Try tapping on the engine control unit; maybe a connection is loose or a cold solder joint has come undone. That was the case for me.'

Wasn't there someone here before who owned a Land Rover whose car wouldn't start because of a faulty control unit?

I seem to recall that it was actually quite simple in the end.

Try searching a bit here.

I don't think any error codes can be read. I'll ask the workshop again (as I said, I'm a complete novice). Also, I noticed that "some" kind of relay is constantly buzzing. It wasn't doing that before.

I would be grateful for any advice you can offer.

Danny.

It's working again - great!

The Rover dealer performed a diagnostic scan and determined that the control unit was okay. After four hours of troubleshooting, he installed a new ground cable, and now it is fully functional again - hopefully for the long term. It was quite expensive, but now it's running again. Thanks again for the good advice.