Other Flat Battery Help please

hi
Have recently purchased my first Rangerover as we also bought a caravan. It is a 3.0 ltrs vogue diesel 2006.

Shortly after I bought it found one morning has flat battery so replaced with new battery . However unless it is driven every couple of days I find I again have the dreaded flat battery.

I have noticed the following

When driving, the entertainment / navigation package has a mind of its own and will switch itself on and off forseemingly no reason.

Sometimes when car switched off radio / cdscarry on playing even with key out of ignition.

Even when above doesn’t happen I think Ican hear a fan or similar running behind the fascia.

So question, does anyone have experience of this as I need this to be reliable. Due to go off with caravan in March and at momentdon’t trust it to bottom of road!!

Any pointers would be greatfully received
Many thanks
Clive

I have just bought one of these, could give you some idea where all your currents are disappearing to.
Amazon product
Sorry computer numpty so your going to have to paste the link.

Really cocked up my reply, have a look on amazon at "sealey TA 120 current tester standard fuse" should help pin down power being consumed when it should'nt be.

Many thanks, I’ll have a look

Welcome to the wonderful world of RR ownership.Did you buy from a dealer? If so take it back and get them to don the searching. There are known drains on the L322, one being the headlamp wipers. Sometimes they don't set properly and will quite happily drain a battery in a couple of days. Ask me how I know Add to this that these are vehicles that don't like short hops. If you are thinking a drive to the shops will be enough , sadly it's not. You need around minimum of half an hour for every time you turn the ignition. So if the battery already has a drain and you just do a quick run to charge it up, by the time you come back, you'll have drained more than you've charged. No insult intended, if you already know this about the beast
I hope you get your gremlins sorted, as these are fantastic when working as they should.

Fan running behind fascia could be the well know "heater fan resistor" fault. Also check bonnet switch is working.

"entertainment ??" system staying on ? Many peeps on here have water ingress in the rear where large parts of the system are located ?

There seems to be many threads about water leakage into left rear boot area . . . . . doesn't the right rear leak as well ?

Hi and thanks for response, yes was from dealer and have emailed them, now waiting response. Generally it is used for longer runs and not short hops !! although I think it reasonable to expect cars to be able to cope with most driving scenarios!! At the moment I’m wondering if I did the right thing in changing from my Rover 75 conniseur which was brilliant!!!

pwood999 said:

Fan running behind fascia could be the well know "heater fan resistor" fault. Also check bonnet switch is working.

"entertainment ??" system staying on ? Many peeps on here have water ingress in the rear where large parts of the system are located ?

There seems to be many threads about water leakage into left rear boot area . . . . . doesn't the right rear leak as well ?

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It probably does but we're all more worried about the info-tainment electrickery on the left side. Oh and the right side has a nice little container fitted to collect the water

Mate of mine had a similar problem on his 2006 RR sport was something to do with the rear tailgate lock mechanism, which dealer told him was a common fault.

Clive Pugh said:

Hi and thanks for response, yes was from dealer and have emailed them, now waiting response. Generally it is used for longer runs and not short hops !! although I think it reasonable to expect cars to be able to cope with most driving scenarios!! At the moment I’m wondering if I did the right thing in changing from my Rover 75 conniseur which was brilliant!!!

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Nice to see you have found the ! button , as you are likely to need it when dealing with the L322. If this is your first green oval, you will soon find what one 'expects' and what one gets are two different things. The L322 is very greedy on the battery and doesn't like short hops, that's just a fact. Although , in all my 3L and 3L plus vehicles I have owned , none of them have liked short hops. With the L322 there is a mountain of electrical to fire up when it starts, so the drain is commensurate.
Without intended offence, if one problem has you this wound up, all I can suggest is have a look around the forum and maybe your thoughts are correct. These vehicles are wonderful when running as they should but, as they age, they are rarely easy to live with. You have been unlucky and encountered a problem immediately. However, it is a 12yr old vehicle, things go wrong with brand new vehicles, at 12 it is a given something will fail. You could get this fixed and have no issues again for a year or you might find the previous owner traded it for a reason.

Morning all, just thought I should at least post an update.
I took vehicle back to dealer and their electrician, who is apparently landrover trained, spent a day on it. I didn’t get to speak to him as just left car and collected later. The story I got from dealer is that apparently there is a preheater installed, I believe you can operate this with a remote, which I don’t have, to warmcar up before starting it. The Rover 75 had similar thing but it never worked.
Anyway somehow this can drain battery so has now been wired to only come on when ignition is turned on.

There was also some electrical issue with telephone module in rear of car, said something about the unit that does Bluetooth etc.

Result

The issues with the navigation and entertainment system coming on and off on their own now seem fixed although now can’t connect phone to car !

Unfortunately the dying battery issue has raised its head again. Used car every couple of days since return, then I didn’t for three days and guess what? Yep flat battery!!

So back it goes. When I rung dealer he said you could always try taking out fuse 18 every time I leave car which apparently kills all electronic activity?

So we’ll see!

Chief battery drain issues on the l322 are the front headlight wipers not parking correctly, the Final Stage Resistor for the fan (although not sure if this was fitted to the 2006 MY as it may use a different HEVAC system), the Alternator diode pack going bandy, Damp ingress into the L/H rear quarter and the BCU refusing to sleep.

If you wanted reliable, a Land Rover product is not the right choice, they are awesome vehicles, but are notoriously unreliable. I am one of their biggest fans and even I have to admit there 'issues' - Range Rover ownership is not for the faint of heart or lack of mechanical and electrical knowledge.....they will keep you on your toes, but you won't want to drive anything else!

On the flat battery issue: after all my problems with battery drain, after the drain was fixed , the battery continued to play up. On my 4th AA recovery, got talking to the chap and was told that crystals can form in a battery that is continually drained. Said crystals stop the battery charging fully. Answers are apparently either put battery on a "deep charge cycle" * and hope that fixes the crystals issue or buy a new battery. I went for the new battery option, Hope this helps.

*may have used wrong phrase but I'm sure someone will tell me if I have

gold rover said:

On the flat battery issue: after all my problems with battery drain, after the drain was fixed , the battery continued to play up. On my 4th AA recovery, got talking to the chap and was told that crystals can form in a battery that is continually drained. Said crystals stop the battery charging fully. Answers are apparently either put battery on a "deep charge cycle" * and hope that fixes the crystals issue or buy a new battery. I went for the new battery option, Hope this helps.

*may have used wrong phrase but I'm sure someone will tell me if I have

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Think he's talking about lead sulphate crystals forming and bridging the gap between the plates and shorting one or more cells. Yes can be saved as long as it hasn't happened too many times or for too long.

Just thought I’d update this thread.
The car went back to dealer for a couple of days who had their Range Rover trained electrician go over it. He found some issues with what I think they said was the phone module in back of car and some other issues with some connections on steering column. Whatever it was it fixed the intermittent operation of the “infotainment” and hopefully the battery drain.

However the following week after a couple of days we were back to flat battery again.

So back went the car this time for two weeks. This time the whole of dash came out and an electrical drain found in the immobiliser /alarm system but couldn’t be identified so they have installed a workaround.

This takes the form of a little switch which they’ve said to switch off if leaving car for any length of time. Apparently it cuts the power to those systems and fair enough the battery seems to be staying charged up.

So anyone heard of anything like this?

Clive

If it makes the car reliable and makes you happy. It's a"fix".
If it compromises vehicle security ....and you are still happy..... it's a "fix".
On the battery issues and sulphation...... A decent charger can resolve that. CTEK chargers (and others) have a recondition cycle to bring a battery back to life.......allegedly.
Eventually, I will crack my battery-drain problems and be a happy man. Until then, I either run it every day or stick it on charge every 3 days.

if the battery is not a sealed for life jobby BATAID tablets will help keep it in good nick

Sounds like a bodge to me and not a fix.
Get them to fix it and not bodge it.
Workarounds are not done under warranty.

Gmacz said:

Sounds like a bodge to me and not a fix.
Get them to fix it and not bodge it.
Workarounds are not done under warranty.

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Just what I was thinking.

With reference to the sound system staying on this happens on my p38 when i take the key out but only for a few seconds
so i wonder if there is a delay relay in the system that may be faulty
Normally the the power feed is from the first click on the key switch in turn was fed direct from the battery or so i thought ????
But hey these are land rovers we are talking about