Discovery 2 v8 Problems with electrics, alarm and not starting.

macmanic · Apr 10, 2013

Hi, New to the forum and in desperate need of help.
This is an issue I have been trying to resolve for 3 months.

It started 12 months ago whe driving the car it would cut out with loss of indicators for no apparent reson. When attempting to start...no crank or indicators.
Central locking and alarm worked fine, left for 5min's the car would start...all well. This would happen every couple of month.

This fault progressed and the alarm would sound in the middle of the night for no reason. Could not be turned off with remote, allthough central locking worked fine. Only solution to stop was to disconnect the battery. Back-up battery for alarm would not sound.

Next stage, the car occasionaly would not start, sounded six pings and an odd (/8) symbol on dash...key fob would activate central locking OK, as would the internal switch. However no indicators, hazards, fuel release etc.

Fitted a known good passanger fuse-box, no change.

Took the car to local indi with spare BCU in hand.
Testbook confirmed existing BCU fine and it was re-programmed to confirm, however they were unable to resolve the issues, other than say that if they yanked the wiring harness, they could get the indicators to work.

Towed the car home and removed the harnesses running thru the bulkhead, completley removed the engine bay fuse box, BCU, pasanger fusebox. Stipped the brading from the harness in the area of the bulkhead grommet, but found no problems.

Re-assembled all of the units and wiring...hey presto! eveyting worked 100%.

2 days later, alarm goes off 3:00 AM, (no wind or rain), can't stop the alarm, cantral locking not working on the key fob, no flasing alarm light on dash, no electrics working, no crank, odd symbol back on dash, 6 pings on position3 ignition.

Removed all components, re-inserted all connectors, re-checked all earths, problem still remains. Checked for corrosion in all footwell connectors abd BCU, all good.

This time, the key fob does nothing and there is no alarm light. Also noticed the ignition key does not illuminate on entry.

After spending hour tracing wires and reading up on forums no further forward.

Anyone...any advice ...please.

I have read that there are data busses that communicate between BCU PCFB etc...are there any connectors within the main hasness running behind the dash?

PS...its a 98 V8 Manual and I live Northumberland UK.

diver · Apr 10, 2013

I had most of these problems and some others such as the engine not turning off when you remove the key and the car deciding to lock all the doors with me in it.
The passenger fuse box was the culprit. Took the back off and there was a lot of water damage on the circuit board.
I believe the symbol indicates a communication fault somewhere. My mileage reading is flashing which indicates a loss of communication between the instrument pack and the BCU.
I think the water is getting into the bottom of the fuse box by running down the wires.The 3 big terminals on the bottom plug seemed to be worst affected. Could be a break in the wire inside the insulation inside one of the plugs or at least high resistance caused by corrosion.
Before I looked at the fuse box, I had swapped the BCU for a second hand unit and inadvertantly increased the mileage by 80000 miles. It appears that the mileage reading is a cooperative venture between the the actual instrument pack and the BCU.
I assume from this that there is some sort of memory/processing going on in the instrument pack. Don't know if that could affect the IDM (fuse box)

Don't know if any of this is any help at all but it does seem that all this does point to the fuse box. How do you know the replacement was good? Might be worth taking the back off both of them and having a look.

macmanic · Apr 10, 2013

Hi Diver, Thanks for the reply.
The replacement fusebox was off a friends car (tdi). Didn't swap over the ignition relay, as even basic hazards didn't work.

Did you also have problems with alarm not working?

Good point regarding internal corrosion in the wiring. I'll check the 3 wires going to the big spaded connector.

I guess this would reduce or cut power to the IDU.

I have had the internal fusebox apart and did have greed corrosion on the spades, however nothing internally.
Cheers

thebiglad · Apr 11, 2013

macmanic said:
Hi, New to the forum and in desperate need of help.
This is an issue I have been trying to resolve for 3 months.

It started 12 months ago whe driving the car it would cut out with loss of indicators for no apparent reson. When attempting to start...no crank or indicators.
Central locking and alarm worked fine, left for 5min's the car would start...all well. This would happen every couple of month.

This fault progressed and the alarm would sound in the middle of the night for no reason. Could not be turned off with remote, allthough central locking worked fine. Only solution to stop was to disconnect the battery. Back-up battery for alarm would not sound.

Next stage, the car occasionaly would not start, sounded six pings and an odd (/8) symbol on dash...key fob would activate central locking OK, as would the internal switch. However no indicators, hazards, fuel release etc.

Fitted a known good passanger fuse-box, no change.

Took the car to local indi with spare BCU in hand.
Testbook confirmed existing BCU fine and it was re-programmed to confirm, however they were unable to resolve the issues, other than say that if they yanked the wiring harness, they could get the indicators to work.

Towed the car home and removed the harnesses running thru the bulkhead, completley removed the engine bay fuse box, BCU, pasanger fusebox. Stipped the brading from the harness in the area of the bulkhead grommet, but found no problems.

Re-assembled all of the units and wiring...hey presto! eveyting worked 100%.

2 days later, alarm goes off 3:00 AM, (no wind or rain), can't stop the alarm, cantral locking not working on the key fob, no flasing alarm light on dash, no electrics working, no crank, odd symbol back on dash, 6 pings on position3 ignition.

Removed all components, re-inserted all connectors, re-checked all earths, problem still remains. Checked for corrosion in all footwell connectors abd BCU, all good.

This time, the key fob does nothing and there is no alarm light. Also noticed the ignition key does not illuminate on entry.

After spending hour tracing wires and reading up on forums no further forward.

Anyone...any advice ...please.

I have read that there are data busses that communicate between BCU PCFB etc...are there any connectors within the main hasness running behind the dash?

PS...its a 98 V8 Manual and I live Northumberland UK.

I would be having a look at both fuse boxes - the engine bay one and the below steering wheel one.

My guess would be a water fault with the engine bay fusebox. Easy to take out and have a look on the underside.

diver · Apr 12, 2013

I did have alarm problems. Randomly going off. The fob wouldn't unlock the doors but I could usually unlock the drivers door with the key. The alarm would then go off but could be unset with the fob. Attemting to set the alarm with the fob would usually give one beep as though one of the doors was open.
Basically it seemed as though everything that was subject to electronic control stopped working. e.g. the wipers would work but not on intermittent. The washers would work but the wipers wouldn't work along with them. The headlights would work but not the fogs.
The other thing that was weird was coming out in the morning and seeing the whole dash lit up with no key in the slot. I also had flat batteries a couple of times as when this happened, if the internal fan had been left on, then it would get powered up and run the battery flat.
Bear in mind, the circuit board is 2 layers with a lot of stuff out of sight between the 2 layers so some of the water damage may not be obvious although general consensus seems to be it does look pretty obvious once you have the back off.

macmanic · Apr 24, 2013

As bit of an update.... spent all weekend checking wiring and engine fuse box...nothing found!

Symptons did change a bit as I spent hours dis-connecting and re-connecting the battery and messing around with switches.

The indicotors would show on the dash, but would not actually illuminate. Then found that the indicators would illuminate if the wipers were on as would the central locking when switched internally.
At one point the windows worked, then locked the car with the key-reopened, then they didnt!

Also alarm LED indicator on dash was permanently off when the car was locked, on opening with the door lock the alarm would go off but could be stopped by inserting the key and car would start.

Remained in this state for 2 days, I then came to start the car this morning...6 pings, a permanent red LED and /8 symbol on dash.

Could the BCU be knackered?
If so, can I buy a 2nd hand unit and get it programmed to my key?

Phoned the local indi...they reckon you can't program the BCU, has to be bought new from Landrover "Built to your car's details"....they have TestBook.

Another problem...the EKA code is o4oD (from Land Rover), however they arn't 100% sure how this transposes into 4x 2 digit numbers.

**-04-**-**

Can anyone advise?

Does D=04 (4th number of alphabet) or A=10, therefore D=13..?
Havent a clue what the o (osca, not zero) means.

Anyone got a good Internal Fuse Box & BCU with Key for a 98 V8 Manual?

Or a box of matches!:flame:

sierrafery · Apr 24, 2013

that symbol an the dash leads 99% to a fault within the BCU or with the datalink to the IDM(interior fusebox)...but most common the BCU...as long as you buy the used BCU from a scrappper who knows his job you can programm it to your car/keys(it must not be in locked condition)... you dont need main steelers, check the nanocom locator and find somebody to help you.

the letters in EKA are in hexadecimal code so D=13, and the |EKA is 4 numbers, each number can be one or two digit, it depends... when you put the replacement BCU you can set in your own EKA with nanocom..e.g 4 digits as your card's pincode to remember it well and to mbe easyer to insert

Discovery 2 v8 Problems with electrics, alarm and not starting.

macmanic

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thebiglad

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