Please help if you can :-)

hi,
i have a 1996 300TDi and my poor little baby has been sat undriven for months now... she needs some help to get her back going from you guys if possible!

basically, i needed a new battery in my key fob - simple yep... silly me bought a cheapish battery, got her going, drove her down a (short) lane and parked her back up... she was then left again for a while, the central locking wasnt working so i assumed i needed another new battery possibly - so opened the key fob to get the battery out - at this point my prat of a hubby insisted i am a woman so cant take a battery out of a keyfob (LMAO!) - so he broke it as he tried, he got his mate to soilder it abother new battery and wooohooo - she worked so she was driven down the same short lane, and left.......

anyway, time has passed, and a few times i've tried, i've had to take the battery off to recharge etc but i cant get my baby to start! i hear a clicking type noise in the glove compartment.....
now, she hasnt been on the road since march time, and i have gone back to a dreadful picasso (yuck!) and i NEEEEEED my lovely green baby back on the road!
after having a talk to the manager at ATS the other week when yet again, i had to spend money on my picasso, he was asking about my discovery and said, there is a way to bypass the immoberliser and i should try that....
i was told to try google and i should be able to find it - well i cant!

he seemed to think that you turn your ignition, do something with the central locking, wait 10 seconds and press the button under the bonnet nr the drivers side wheel arch (amazingly - there is a button there....) but he wasnt sure of the exact order etc.

all i can find online talks about messing with wires etc which is way too complex for me :frown:

Does anyone have any idea of what the ATS man was going on about??

i also need to try and get my reverse lights working if i can get the above fixed but from the look of my haynes manual - thats a major job which is way too much for me - and the mechanic we use says he doesnt want to faff around doing it! i dread to think what else she will fail her MOT on but i've already spent loads on her over the years and i love her so its all ok lol (well, in my mind at the end of it, she will have had so many new parts, she will be like a new car......)


ETA - the key fob is the 2 button type and sorry, maybe i should have put this in the 300tdi section

Are you sure that the solenoid isn't stuck on the starter motor, hence the clicking when trying to start. You can buy something which will bypass the spider on 300tdi LR themselves sell it olny about £7.50. Try tapping the starter motor a few times, just to see if its stuck, then try to restart. My old 300 was wired to start off two switches althou you needed the key for the steering lock.

here you go hope this will help some way:
HANDSET INITIALISATION
NOTE: New handsets are supplied in pairs.
If a new handset is required, it will require
initialisation to the ECU using the
following procedure:
1. Starting conditions: ignition off, doors unlocked,
bonnet switch depressed.
2. Carry out instructions 3. to 9. within 8 seconds.
3. Switch ignition ON.
4. Switch ignition OFF.
5. Lock doors.
6. Unlock doors.
7. Release bonnet switch.
8. Switch ignition ON.
9. Switch ignition OFF.
If alarm is correctly accessed, horn will sound and
LED will light. It is now possible to programme two
handsets of correct frequency to vehicle alarm ECU.
This must be carried out within two minutes.
10. Press and hold down button on first handset until
dash LED flashes.
11. Repeat instruction 10. for second handset.
12. The LED will extinguish if both handsets have
been initialised correctly.
CENTRAL DOOR LOCKING
Where electrically operated central door locking is
fitted, locking or unlocking the drivers door from
outside by key operation, or from the inside with the
sill knob automatically locks or unlocks the passenger
and rear doors.
Front and rear passenger doors can be independently
locked or unlocked from inside the vehicle by sill knob
operation but can be overidden by further operation of
the driver’s door locking control.
On rear doors, where side facing fold down seats are
fitted, a child safety lock is provided which can be
mechanically pre-set to render the interior door
handles inoperative.
Failure of a door actuator will not affect the operation
of the remaining doors and the door with the
inoperative actuator can still be locked or unlocked
manually.
The actuator unit fitted to the driver’s door is the
master actuator and is identified from the actuators
fitted to the passenger and rear doors by having a
white connecting link, whereas the passenger and
rear door actuators have grey coloured connecting
links.
NOTE: Actuator units are non-servicable, if
a fault should occur replace the unit with a
new one.

reverse lights are not tested on mot

The reverse light could be acouple of different things, switch on the side of the box, dirty connection, or wiring fault

Thanks for your help!

It sounds as if the garage who sold us the new battery for the key fob didnt tell us to do the handset correctly as all we did was something with the ignition switch and then pressing they key fob 5 or 6 times (it did work though... but only to start the engine once then it would go again).

i have had a play around this morning and i think its an immoberliser issue, BUT, using the security code etc doesnt seem to have any effect but i'm not sure if i did it totally right (followed instructions in manual, code used is on the original card from LR, vins match but mine has had a recon engine in so not sure if that would then mean a diff code??)

alex - you mention bonnet switch depressed in step 1 - ??? are we talking about the button i mention under the bonnet or the bonnet release by the glove conpartment??
also with step 10 - the key fob has 2 buttons so which should i press?

i know the reverse lights arnt part of the MOT but we live on a busy road and when i used to driver it daily, i would get sooo many beeps etc when trying to reverse out of the drive it would annoy me, i know last year for its MOT the mechanic did mention that they may in the future be making it part of the MOT so if i can get them fixed, i would prefer to.

this morning has been bad as the private drive upto the stables is even deeper with flooding than yesterday, my picasso make it through both time (there and back) but on the way back, it cut out just as i went through the puddle but before i went up a bit of a hill to get to the road. There is noway i can risk taking it through again and with having young twins, i need to be able to get up there in a car otherwise i think i need a boat!

I'll def give your suggestions a try later on today and fingers crossed!

alex8882 said:

here you go hope this will help some way:
HANDSET INITIALISATION
NOTE: New handsets are supplied in pairs.
If a new handset is required, it will require
initialisation to the ECU using the
following procedure:
1. Starting conditions: ignition off, doors unlocked,
bonnet switch depressed.
2. Carry out instructions 3. to 9. within 8 seconds.
3. Switch ignition ON.
4. Switch ignition OFF.
5. Lock doors.
6. Unlock doors.
7. Release bonnet switch.
8. Switch ignition ON.
9. Switch ignition OFF.
If alarm is correctly accessed, horn will sound and
LED will light. It is now possible to programme two
handsets of correct frequency to vehicle alarm ECU.
This must be carried out within two minutes.
10. Press and hold down button on first handset until
dash LED flashes.
11. Repeat instruction 10. for second handset.
12. The LED will extinguish if both handsets have
been initialised correctly.
CENTRAL DOOR LOCKING
Where electrically operated central door locking is
fitted, locking or unlocking the drivers door from
outside by key operation, or from the inside with the
sill knob automatically locks or unlocks the passenger
and rear doors.
Front and rear passenger doors can be independently
locked or unlocked from inside the vehicle by sill knob
operation but can be overidden by further operation of
the driver’s door locking control.
On rear doors, where side facing fold down seats are
fitted, a child safety lock is provided which can be
mechanically pre-set to render the interior door
handles inoperative.
Failure of a door actuator will not affect the operation
of the remaining doors and the door with the
inoperative actuator can still be locked or unlocked
manually.
The actuator unit fitted to the driver’s door is the
master actuator and is identified from the actuators
fitted to the passenger and rear doors by having a
white connecting link, whereas the passenger and
rear door actuators have grey coloured connecting
links.
NOTE: Actuator units are non-servicable, if
a fault should occur replace the unit with a
new one.

Click to expand...

thats for programing a single button fob.
theres a few companies that will refurb the two button fob, but they'll need the code from the alarm ecu, and possibly the ecu itself.
cant remember the name atm, but its been discussed on lz, and google should pick them up.
depending on the age age of your 300tdi, depends on the immobiliser setup you have. search "spider immobilser problems" as this is a common fault, and the can be bypassed.
may be better to get the fob working first so the cetral locking can be used to get into the disco. (it will help with the starting problem diagnostics too)

edit- do you have two fobs? :scratching_chin:

try this one don't know if it will work or not. the lock button is the right hand side one on the fob(or atleast it is on mine lol)



1.Ok on the hand set (remote) once you have it open and old battery out press each button for at least five seconds, this will drain any residual power from the hand set.

2.Fit the new battery with the positive side up, take care to not touch anything else.

3.After the remote is back together unlock the Rover with the key ,
then operate the lock button on the remote at least four times.
Then the remote is ready for use.

Or so the owners manual has said.
This is from mine and its a 1996.

I hope it helps.

Still no joy :-((

Alex - i couldnt help but notice your location, i am only a few miles away - can you recommend a local garage/mobile mechanic thats good for Land Rovers? I believe there is someone at Preston but i know in the past when i spoke to them they were rather pricey!

Thanks.

You can buy a new key fob - pre-programmed for your vehicle - (well with the bit you need to plug in to program the ECU) for £50 from these people:

Land Rover Discovery I Key Fob

I've heard a lot of good things about them, although, never used them, i've been looking at getting a second key fob though, so, may be using them.

IIRC the emobiliser stops the fuel getting to the engine, not the starter motor turning? Or maybe the emobiliser does more than one thing? I know you can fairly easily remove the emobiliser from the fuel pump to get round that part of the problem.

Bump said:

You can buy a new key fob - pre-programmed for your vehicle - (well with the bit you need to plug in to program the ECU) for £50 from these people:

Land Rover Discovery I Key Fob

I've heard a lot of good things about them, although, never used them, i've been looking at getting a second key fob though, so, may be using them.

IIRC the emobiliser stops the fuel getting to the engine, not the starter motor turning? Or maybe the emobiliser does more than one thing? I know you can fairly easily remove the emobiliser from the fuel pump to get round that part of the problem.

Click to expand...

I used this company after faffing about with my old fob for ages.
It was next day delivery and worked straight away, great result!