Big mystery...one for the Big Brains!

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West Slope Rover

West Slope Rover

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This problem comes and goes. My motor is a'93 RRC LSE 4.2.

I will start the car and after a moment the engine coolant level light will begin flasjhing as if the level is low or the connector to the expansion cap has been broken or disturbed, however both level and connection are fine. When this light is flashing I have no heater or air con and the power to my cigarette lighters is gone. The light on the cruise control button does not come and the cruise doesn't work as well. I've looked at RAVE and cant' make sense of the wiring diagrams because of old guy eyesight and my printer is on the blink so I can't print out a larger schematic.

Any of you ever have this problem? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated as it is near 100 degrees around here these days.......
 
I can't download the rave manual at the mo, so unless you can point me at a wiring diagram, I'm limited to one hunch...

Try the fuse for the aircon/cigar lighter.

ps. My intarweb is down to 0.5mbit/sec............
 
boguing said:
I can't download the rave manual at the mo, so unless you can point me at a wiring diagram, I'm limited to one hunch...

Try the fuse for the aircon/cigar lighter.

ps. My intarweb is down to 0.5mbit/sec............
Click to expand...

Thanks for the input. I've checked both the fuses and the relay for the heater and air conditioning. Both are good.
 
West Slope Rover said:
This problem comes and goes. My motor is a'93 RRC LSE 4.2.

I will start the car and after a moment the engine coolant level light will begin flasjhing as if the level is low or the connector to the expansion cap has been broken or disturbed, however both level and connection are fine. When this light is flashing I have no heater or air con and the power to my cigarette lighters is gone. The light on the cruise control button does not come and the cruise doesn't work as well. I've looked at RAVE and cant' make sense of the wiring diagrams because of old guy eyesight and my printer is on the blink so I can't print out a larger schematic.

Any of you ever have this problem? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated as it is near 100 degrees around here these days.......
Click to expand...

Flashing coolant light, check the condition of the actual connectors and the wire, corroded wire in the back of the connector can cause this, I removed the factory plug and put on ordinary crimp spades.

Heater and air con could be connected, I would have to check the book when I get home later. Cruise is unlikely to be related to the heater issue. If your brake light switch is stuck on cruise won't engage so that might be worth a check. I'll have a look later and if I find anything useful I'll post back here.
 
classic kev said:
Flashing coolant light, check the condition of the actual connectors and the wire, corroded wire in the back of the connector can cause this, I removed the factory plug and put on ordinary crimp spades.

Heater and air con could be connected, I would have to check the book when I get home later. Cruise is unlikely to be related to the heater issue. If your brake light switch is stuck on cruise won't engage so that might be worth a check. I'll have a look later and if I find anything useful I'll post back here.
Click to expand...
I did the same with the factory plug awhile ago. The light on the cruise button on the dash goes out when this is occurring and renders the cruise control inoperable. I know that the heater/ air con share a relay. Swapped it out for another, no joy.

darrenaroberts said:
Pre softdash I have this if I move the handbrake - coolant plus one other warning light comes on....
Click to expand...
Interesting......
 
Here is another interesting symptom. For 3 days now the car has had the flashing light no heater problem from start up in the morning. I drive to work, a drive of about 45 minutes and park it. Upon start up in the afternoon to drive home, the thing is working fine, no flash and cool air soothing my soul.
 
West Slope Rover said:
Here is another interesting symptom. For 3 days now the car has had the flashing light no heater problem from start up in the morning. I drive to work, a drive of about 45 minutes and park it. Upon start up in the afternoon to drive home, the thing is working fine, no flash and cool air soothing my soul.
Click to expand...

As you say "interesting". Could be an earth problem, I would suggest checking as many earth points as you can find and giving them a clean.

I believe the '93 air con circuit is the same as the one on my '91 so the problem would be likely to be either the heater/air con relay or possibly either of the main switches (fan speed or air con/recirc/fresh air). The only other apparently common connection between the fan motor and air con motors is the earth. Out of interest did you notice if the condenser fans were running when you switched on the air con? If they didn't run either then odds are it is an earth problem. HTH
 
Don't know this vehicle in particular but if it was me faced with this array of faults I think I would be tempted to look at the simplest first (cig lighter). Chances are if you fix that fault you will fix them all (assuming they all started at the same time)
 
Your heater blower, cig lighter and cruise ecu all share the same earth point which is E201.
You will find this in the footwell behind the carpet at the bottom of the "A" pillar, LH side on uk vehicles.
 
classic kev said:
As you say "interesting". Could be an earth problem, I would suggest checking as many earth points as you can find and giving them a clean.

I believe the '93 air con circuit is the same as the one on my '91 so the problem would be likely to be either the heater/air con relay or possibly either of the main switches (fan speed or air con/recirc/fresh air). The only other apparently common connection between the fan motor and air con motors is the earth. Out of interest did you notice if the condenser fans were running when you switched on the air con? If they didn't run either then odds are it is an earth problem. HTH
Click to expand...
I've opened up the controls on the heater (and crushed a couple of those tiny lights when reinstalling everything) and the controls all work. I was just driving it today thinking about perhaps an earthing problem.


owl said:
Your heater blower, cig lighter and cruise ecu all share the same earth point which is E201.
You will find this in the footwell behind the carpet at the bottom of the "A" pillar, LH side on uk vehicles.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the info. I'll check it out.
 
Well Owl, it's doing it again and now it's 9 degrees F. I will check the earthing point that you so kindly pointed out at lunch today, if I don't freeze to death on the way to work.
 
I couldn't find anything that looked like the picture, but I did locate one that looked similar on my passenger side pillar. I cleaned it up and no joy. I'm now going to check the fuses under my passenger seat, which may be difficult because my seat controls are broke and I can't move the seat forward enough to get at the bits.
 
All sorted. After learning how to test relays and going bonkers tracing the RAVE electrical diagrams I came to the conclusion that the power to my ignition load relay was the problem, because the relay worked, but the things that were supposed to come on didn't. Plus, I could open my fuel filler door while the car was running, so that cinched that the relay wasn't working. So instead of tracing wires, I thought I would do something easy and clean the connections at my alternator. Which cured the ills. :dance:
 
If you could open the fuel flap with the engine running then the ign load relay hadn't picked as when the relay isn't activated power is supplied too the fuel flap release switch.
I can't see what the alternator has to do with the issue as power to the ign load relay is from the batt through a couple of fuses. Though the feed from the Alt goes to the engine fuse box which is where the supply to the load relay comes from so perhaps you disturbed something there.
 
owl said:
If you could open the fuel flap with the engine running then the ign load relay hadn't picked as when the relay isn't activated power is supplied too the fuel flap release switch.
I can't see what the alternator has to do with the issue as power to the ign load relay is from the batt through a couple of fuses. Though the feed from the Alt goes to the engine fuse box which is where the supply to the load relay comes from so perhaps you disturbed something there.
Click to expand...
Interesting. I never got into the engine fuse box.

I really am a dullard when it comes to electrics. :confused: Not such a good thing when you own Range Rovers.
 
The problem has returned and comes and goes intermittently. It's got to be a funky connection somewhere. Next task is cutting into the mass of wires and checking the fusible links. I could live with the issue, but I've found that when the problem is present, I can't shift my transfer case!
 
So, after months of no problems, it's back. Oddly it seems to be temperature related. When it's cold, the problem surfaces. The temp at night recently has dropped into the low 40's and boom, flashing light and no heater. Once I drive a bit, things warm up and work. Plus, I realized that I can't shift into low range when the problem is occurring.

Any Ideas?
 
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