Land Rover Repair: TD5 Discovery 2001 model, crank sensor, egr valve

Question
Question:

Hi There..I have a strage problem with my TD5 2001 model..It runs along perfectly and every now and then the engine will loose vertually all power and I will have to pull off the road it just idles or sometimes ciuts out. When this happens grey / black smoke pours out of the exhaust.After turning of the engine I have to press the button on my key remote and once the red light on the dash stops flashing fast and goes to the armed mode, I then unlock the vechile and start the engine and all is well for maybe 3 weeks maybe 2 days then it does this again. I have asked everybody in Australia and they have never heard of this problem. Do you have any ideas what could be wrong as I have asked most dealers in Australia and they have not heard of this propbelm before..Thank you  Steve


Answer
My first thought would be to replace the crank sensor and then to check all grounds and connections, cleaning and adding di-electric grease to all sensors and ECU connections.  Then, check for a stuck open EGR valve or a possible failed injector.  If one injector fails it will shut the whole car down.  If you put petrol in by mistake, it would destroy the main fuel pump assembly by delubricating it.  If this is the case, it would need to be replaced.