Flat Battery Problem

Hi folks, got a problem regarding me battery, it all started when i got a company van 3 months ago. this meant i was only using my freelander at weekends. The first weekend i went to start it only to find battery was drained flat. Got the AA out to jump start it. They connected their laptop to it, told me everything was fine. Running and Charging well.......

The next weekend it went flat again, i jump started with the van. All ok the rest of the weekend.

The next weekend, yep u guessed it..... Flat again.

Something is obviously draining the battery through the week, but cant work it out, only thing i can find is the led on the dash that flashes when locked up, but that dont use much power i know that......

Any1 else had this prob? i searched the forums but nothing there........

has it got a cd changer? try disconcting it for a week see if it holds its charge
as they are always live.
put a mulitmeter on it when it isnt running if its around 12.2 volts the battery is knackered.
it should be around 12.5 and if its running it should go up to around 13.5 max.

yer batterie is ont way out dave,its the first sign ,if you drove it all the time you might get lucky un last through summer ,but sure as eggs ,come the cold its gonna fail. . . .

Ok cheers guys, i'll get it tested as soon as i can, thought battery would be fine cos AA geezer said it was. maybe he was wrong.......

Charge bat up then disconnect positive terminal from bat. After a week re connnect pos terminal and see if the beast will start. No start= knackerd bat.

I would do what loatmead said, but you need a spare car/battery to do it. The problem with volt meters is they put no load on the battery. What this means is they can show up 'ghost voltage'. Ie the volts are there but there is simply not enough current. You can buy discharge testers that put a load on and will show true voltage, butthey are as expensive as a new battery. If you know a friendly garage they might do it for free or a couple of quid?

The battery should be viewed as a disposable item.

Unipart do them for £30 plus VAT, dearer batteries available but all depends how many Amp hours you want the thing to work for you.

The alarm LED draws about 0.5 amps per hour not to mention, radio live feed and clock.

check current draw, should be 0.03A with the car locked and armed

Took the easy way out n bought a new battery, cost me "60 notes", just gotta wait n see if it goes flat, if it does then ill take it in for testing, At least i know the battery's ok.

About 8 months ago, my wife's Freelander battery started to go flat after a few days. She doesn't drive it much, a few miles per day. Landrover Assistance tested the battery and found a dead cell. We bought a new one and a few months later had the same problem. We found that if we did not use the car for 2 days, it wouldn't start - barely turn over. 3-4 days and the battery is completely flat. Landrover assistance couldn't find any significant drain on the battery when tested and said it was a faulty battery. We now have a another new battery and will wait and see. I have my doubts, I wonder if low mileage or little usage just doesn't provide enough charge to hold over for a few days.

Costco sell Bosch batteries and seem to be cheaper than most, everyone knows someone with a card these days but no doubt i'll be proved wrong

clutchdust said:

check current draw, should be 0.03A with the car locked and armed

Click to expand...

I support this approach to the problem , this is the only way to establish whether the current drain is acceptable. I have fitted a solar battery trickle charger which supplies an average of 0.1 amps even on dull days and this cancels out the drain due to radio/ clock/ CCU etc.

Maplin approx £14.00 (BTW this not spam) D..

Take it you have checked to see if rear loadspace light is going out when tailgate is closed ?

Hi Dave
I am new on here I have just done a web search as I am having the same problem with my Freelander it is just over a year old and the battery keeps dying if I don’t drive it for a few days.
I use it mainly during the week and in the last 2 weeks I have had the AA out 3 times and they say the battery reading is fine.
I am going to book it in to the garage tomorrow, I have already had it in this week as I thought it might have been my hands free parrot system draining it somehow, this was rewired but its still draining.
The guy at Landover said that Freelanders are notorious for this, which I find disappointing and I wouldn’t have bought this make otherwise.
It would be good to know if your new battery has done the trick…
Thanks Vicky

Hi Vicky,

Another Dave here as this thread originally started in 2007. The Freelander, like a lot of modern cars, has a lot of electronics on board. However, when the car is switched off then most of these systems are powered off or in low power mode.

The things to check are those things that use enough current to flatten a battery in a few days and that would be lights. Check that the interior lights are off when the doors are closed and don't forget the boot light.

The other power hungry item is teh rear window de-mister. With the engine idling, press the button to bring the de-mister on and off. There should be an audible click from below the steering wheel. If there is no click then at least tell the garage this as the relay may have welded.

I hope your problem is fixed soon and for what its worth i would say your car has a problem as they don't flatten batteries that quickly.

Good luck,

Dave Sawyer (Coincidentally )

Just caught up with this thread having also done a web search. I bought a Freelander2 secondhand six months ago - it's now almost three years old - and as soon as the weather got cold, I started getting a whole series of electric problems and one night had a completely flat battery.

Took it into the garage this morning and was told that it was all down to the battery not holding a charge and they were replacing it "and a valve" under guarantee.

I will find out what this "valve" is, as unless something else is done, I presume the battery might pack up again in three years time!

A full list of my symptoms I gave to the garage are listed below in case anyone is interested. The "surging" one may be unrelated, but it is an uncomfortable and regular speeding up and slowing down of the car at high speeds. :-(

Jim

Electrics Problems (started early December)

- 12 Dec. The SatNav stopped working (map still on screen, but no map movement or voice). Restarted car four times, no change. After 1/2 hour re-started car and working again.

Then:-
- Audio system / Satnav - peep noise and then all shuts down completely and then reopens
- dashboard lights go off too sometimes when this happens
- sometimes we get a warning beep on start, no warning message
- sometimes we get the "HDC Terrain Response System not working" on start & then goes out
- flickering dashboard lights
- Warning message "HDC Terrain Response System not working" every time we came to a halt (after a stall). Then OK after a while.
- Regular Surging of speed up and down - noticeable mainly in top gears if accelerating

- Late December (in middle of all above)
- Battery went flat overnight. Jump-started.
- Noted that seats stopped moving, fuse was OK. Waggled seats wire under passenger seat and then both started moving.

*This morning* driving downhill normally - three beeps and "HDC not available" sign came on

Just spend a hundred in notes and get a new battery.It'll last yeh years,and worry free parking.

The morning after i bought mine the battery was dead,took it to the auto factors,they will check yours for free,just do some homework on the puter to have an idea the price of good quality batteries,and the budget one too,
get the best you can afford.

I had to replace my battery a month ago. I tested my v6 2001 FL's current drain by rigging up a multimeter set to current, then locking the car. Then after 2 minutes removed the battery connection (meter rigged so this could be done, and the current would then flow through the meter without power loss to the car) and it draws 76mA or 0.076amps. My backgrounds in electronics, but I appreciate not everyone will want to try this. This is the same value it has drawn in the past when measured. When settling to 11.5volts after 2 hours my battery couldn't start my FL.

Regarding the battery testing, after you've fully charged the battery leave it to stand for a few hours disconnected. The volts will settle on it. If they're low, then it's not holding its charge. You'll be able to find a data sheet on your battery, on the web, (if not the tech archive here is good > Yuasa - industrial batteries, automotive batteries, motorcycle batteries, golf batteries, mobility batteries.), which will give a settled voltage verses battery capacity, as a graph. This will indicate it's available storage capacity, hence when it's nearing end of life. The difference between 20 degrees and 0 degrees will also reduce battery capacity buy approx 20%. Been chucking loads of batteries out at work recently.

I had trouble getting a 75Ah battery for my 2.5 v6 FL as all the shops wanted to sell 60Ah batteries, as per their records. It's seems they've all been told this is ok for FL 1's. The owners manual (and checked with local dealer) confirm 75Ah is correct for my FL 1 2.5 v6. Make sure you ask for the positive terminal on the correct side too. Sealed for life gel for £90 for 72Ah battery.

OK - have now got the car back - it's got a new battery which they say will solve the electrical problems. It was a bad battery from the start they reckon. Who knows; time will tell.

The surging they said was due to a faulty turbo boost control solenoid and not the EGR valve.

Have not tested this properly yet - will report back if any problems

Jim

..just to say that the new battery seems to have fixed the electrics problem and the solenoid has resolved the surging problem, so I'm a happy chappie at present!

Jim