Can anyone Recommend a good battery?

Well, I picked up my 4.0 last night and very happy I am too!

The previous owner mentioned that cold weather and leaving it unstarted for a week can result in not enough juice to turn the engine over. Not exactly perfect but easily solveable I would have thought by buying a new heavy duty battery.

I could go to Halfords and buy one of their off the shelf Heavy Duty, 3 year gaurantee units but wondered if anyone had a better recomendation? Is it worth tracking something down with greater cranking amps?

Any tips gratefully received.

Thanks,

Tom

Hi.
If you want to save money in the long run i'll give you a list later of the batteries i have and would use which allow you to check the levels. I dont think that all the halfords ones allow that. Where abouts in the world are you.

Nick.

I'm in Wiltshire. I'm just looking for a battery that will hold charge well for a period of say, up to two weeks or more and then crank over with plenty of strength. What sort of Cranking amps should I be looking for with the big V8 engine?

Hi.
The battery i have fitted the label has fallen off it but its great! (How much use is that) and is around 50 pounds from the local guy who does nothing but batteries and has never (touch wood) let me down, but i do check the levels once a month and top up. The Halfords one was priced around 80 quid with 590 cold cranking amps and the landrover genuine was about 120 quid with 800 c c amps. Bear in mind that the p38 has loads of electric goodies. Possibly buying one of those under bonnet mains battery top up units might be an idea.
Hope that helps.

Nick.

Have a look on Car Batteries UK - Buy Online they list loads of batteries for LR and deliver overnight too at very competitive prices. I bought two 069/072 batteries for a tdi for £108.10 and they whizz daughters Tdi rr over very nicely.

Hi - when I needed a battery for my P38 DSE I looked up the heavy duty number in the Halfords catalogue and actually bought it from my local Farmers Store - In Wiltshire I think you have County wide Trading? - I think you will find them to be about £40 cos it will be the same as fitted to a tractor some where along the line.....

you need a 72ah battery there is a supplier near me called manbat, i think they supply nationwide and are good reasonably priced batteries. dont buy a cheap battery cos they are exactly that

tch911 said:

The previous owner mentioned that cold weather and leaving it unstarted for a week can result in not enough juice to turn the engine over.

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I bet he forgot to tell you that if it does go flat your RR will need to be flat trucked to a dealer if your keys become unsyncronised to the car? Cost = £200 odd!

Has the previous owner had the RF receiver replaced? You do realise that potentially the RF receiver maybe receiving spurious RF signals and waking up the BECM and draining your battery?

When I purchased my RR it came with 4 fob keys. This indicates RF receiver problems and left my car stranded in two shopping mall car parks as a result.

After doing some research, I found that in 2004 LR admitted the original P38 RF receiver (Part # AFR1953) was defective and tried to fix this problem twice.

This is rectified by RF receiver part no YWY500170 produced and manufactured under the new BMW ownership.

I also changed my RR’s alternator from its original 80 amps to 120. Again it’s sensible to do certain things on the P38.

My battery went flat and i did not have to take it to landrover, just put new battery on and put key in the ignition, resynced itself been fine since.

Cheers, Nick.

Nick, Adam is talking about the issue where a low battery causes the BeCM (main computer under the drivers seat which is basically equivalent to God in the P38) to loose its security code synch with the Engine Management ECU (depending on what year P38 you have this is either behind the battery or just infront of the bulkhead on the passenger side).

Basically the way I understand it is when the battery voltage drops right down the BeCM can 'forget' the mobilisation code the engine management ECU needs to allow the engine to start. You will basically just get a message on the message centre telling you to enter the EKA or press a button on the remote but nothing will happen when you try and start. The symptom of this is no check engine light when you turn the ignition on. Until the BeCM relearns the code you 'aint going nowhere'. It either means you have to get the vehicle trailered to somewhere like a main LR dealer of specialist or get someone with Rovacom/Autologic out to you to reset it for you. A 5 min (if that) job.

Check out the forums over at rangerovers.net for more info on the problem, if you search the forums you will find quite a few people who have been unable to use their Range Rover until the code was reset.

HTH
-Wills

njh said:

My battery went flat and i did not have to take it to landrover, just put new battery on and put key in the ignition, resynced itself been fine since.

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All I can say is that you've been extremely lucky. Having been stranded in two car parks with typical RF CCTV systems installed, my 96 P38 got stranded and nothing would get my RR running again and had to be flat trucked back to my local LR dealer.

The EKA should have worked but didnt, and the RAC man tried, I tried and so did the wife. All to no avail. At this point, my RR is working 100% after replacing the RF receiver on the car. It also has an official LR battery and new 120amp alternator.

Fingers crossed, its fixed the problem.

Good evening all.
I'm telling you guys when i changed my engine my car sat with no battery for 3 weeks and on numerous occasions since as i've had trouble with my gas system it's been disconnected overnight or through the day so's i can remap the petrol with no side affects. All i need to do is put a battery on, insert the key in the ignition, the key led will flash three times and the car to key is resynced.
If you press the key more than three times in a row out of range of the car the car wont open unless you put the key in the door, then insert it in the ignition at which point it fires all the solonoids and the car opens. I think that i have a different system to you guy's. When my wife needs to use her key she just opens the door with it actually in the lock, puts it in the ignition and off she goes, it will open the car for however long she chooses to use it.

Cheers, Nick.

njh said:

Good evening all.
I'm telling you guys when i changed my engine my car sat with no battery for 3 weeks and on numerous occasions since as i've had trouble with my gas system it's been disconnected overnight or through the day so's i can remap the petrol with no side affects. All i need to do is put a battery on, insert the key in the ignition, the key led will flash three times and the car to key is resynced.
If you press the key more than three times in a row out of range of the car the car wont open unless you put the key in the door, then insert it in the ignition at which point it fires all the solonoids and the car opens. I think that i have a different system to you guy's. When my wife needs to use her key she just opens the door with it actually in the lock, puts it in the ignition and off she goes, it will open the car for however long she chooses to use it.

Cheers, Nick.

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If you have a P38 then you wont have a different system. The security features are all pretty much the same throughout the P38's the way I have read and understood it. You may not have experienced it as the battery hasnt gradually gone flat, instead you have just disconnected it. I just know of all the times people have had the problem over at rangerovers.net. Usually the pattern is that the battery has gradually gone flat over a few days and once recharged or replaced the engine wont start as the security code synch has been lost. If you search over at rangerovers.net you will find lots of posts on the subject as I said before. Maybe you have just been lucky so far??

EDIT: RangeRovers.net :: View topic - HELP (please!)- Won't start, no crank, no CHECK ENGINE light check out this link for an example of the problem...

-Wills

Well, I'll worry about the electronics letting me down when that occurs. I have found two batteries from BAT MAN UK. They have

625 CCA 75 amp/h £54 + VAT Not Sealed
550 CCA 70 amp/h £51 + VAT Sealed for life

Obviously 625 CCA is preferable, what about these amp/h. Does it matter that they're different?

I have a late 1997 4.6 HSE. The battery has been completely flat twice now. I have had no problems getting it going from a jump start, I was informed that the sync system was changed so that the receiver in the ignition switched automatically set the system up, no need to enter the EKA or press any buttons. I can only say that this seems to be the case for me. I have had one problem with the RF issue. I stopped at Heathrow airport and couldn't restart the car, turns out signals in the area were preventing the key talking to the BECM, the car wasn't even locked at the time.

jdennington said:

I have had one problem with the RF issue. I stopped at Heathrow airport and couldn't restart the car, turns out signals in the area were preventing the key talking to the BECM, the car wasn't even locked at the time.

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Sounds like you need to buy and install the NEW RF receiver part no YWY500170. I have just come back from Heathrow and no problems whatsoever now and as you know Heathrow's CCTV system is enormous and there are cameras every so many feet.

After fitting the new receiver to my car, I have had no problems unlocking/locking and starting my RR.

I can't recommend highly enough to replace anyone ones P38 RF Receiver. Its changed the reliablity of my car 100% since I have done so.

Remember, the RF receiver will never come up on a LR testbook test as the original RF receiver (Part # AFR1953) is never considered faulty when your P38 RR's BECM is hooked up and tested therefore LR will never replace it as part of a service. You as the owner need to be proactive and ask for this to be done.

tch911 said:

I could go to Halfords and buy one of their off the shelf Heavy Duty, 3 year gaurantee units but wondered if anyone had a better recomendation? Is it worth tracking something down with greater cranking amps?

Any tips gratefully received.

Thanks,

Tom

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Without question I would go for an Optima Red Top (in fact, I have got an Optima Red Top !!!)

I did loads of research when I needed a new battery and have been more than pleased with my choice. The difference when I fitted it was immediately noticeable - & that was comparing it to a massive genuine LR battery that was fitted previously. Have a search on Google & you will see why I chose the Optima.

Cheers,
Chris.

Wouldnt the world be a better place if everyone was this helpfull!

Indeed.

Landrover want to charge £105 for a heavy duty battery
Red Top is £126
Halfords is £87.

Apparently the Red Top is very, very good at stoving off the cold. Expensive and is gonna look a bit funny in the all black engine bay. I am tempted though.

As for the fitting. Land Rover said that the only thing that needs re-setting is the windows and sunroof and this can be avoided by:

Ignition on
Ignition off
Speedy replacement of battery.

tch911 said:

Apparently the Red Top is very, very good at stoving off the cold. Expensive and is gonna look a bit funny in the all black engine bay. I am tempted though.

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Dont you have the black battery cover that goes over the battery and the engine management ECU??

-Wills