Help electrical chaos & every warning sounding after battery disconnected for a while

Need some help please guys

Range Rover (2000) been off the road since Sept after head gasket or engine cracked or something. Anyway sourced an engine to put in it and was getting ready to have it taken to friend's garage to be done.

The battery went dead quite soon after it was off the road so recharged but left it disconnected till now (7 months later).

Charged battery back up and went to try and start it to back off drive before ringing recovery people but the dash went crazy and starting beeping all over the place.

It's saying on the dash that pretty much every fault has occurred i.e. ABS, traction, gearbox etc etc and also the engine is disabled and asks me to press the remote (with key in ignition) but when I do nothing happens.

Now it was all fine when I disconnected the battery so obviously its not liked being disconnected for so long and the electrical gremlins have been at it.

So I need some help to know how to fix this, is it something that a gargage can fix if I can get it up there and they can plug it into a computer and clear errors?

Is there an easy way to get the key remote and the engine to start talking to each other assuming that they have got themselves out of sync or whatever it is that happens? The remote will operate the central locking so not sure if that is ok why engine not happy?

If the electrical brain is having a melt down will I be able to plug the fuse into the socket to allow it to be towed or will it require a flat bed?

As it's been stood over winter is it possible that damp has got into ECU?

Many thanks for any help as I'm completely baffled.

Cheers

It will need some diagnostics to sort all your problems. Try sticking a 10 amp fuse in position 11 and see what you get.

Cheers, do you think it'll just them clearing using testbook (or whatever its called) or more actual work?

Guess I'll need to tow it off the drive , fingers crossed the fuse works.

The battery was down to 6v so charging it up, currently at 12.16v, however just been to test it and the power was dropping as I was watching it so guessing the battery is buggered, now have to go and buy another battery and hope this helps.

And so the money pit begins....

Dr W said:

Cheers, do you think it'll just them clearing using testbook (or whatever its called) or more actual work?

Guess I'll need to tow it off the drive , fingers crossed the fuse works.

The battery was down to 6v so charging it up, currently at 12.16v, however just been to test it and the power was dropping as I was watching it so guessing the battery is buggered, now have to go and buy another battery and hope this helps.

And so the money pit begins....

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Yep new battery first then see what you have P38s do not like low voltage at all.

Get e decent sized battery, 135AH 1000 CCA is the biggest that fits. Battery megastore about £100 delivered.

Needed one now so Halfords one will have to do.

Right new battery cleared all the gibberish warnings but has given me a new problem in the form of keycode lock out.

I've got the code and tried to enter it but it doesn't seem to recognise the fact I'm turning the key, doesn't go into any sort of input mode, doesn't make any sounds at all. I'm wondering if whatever sensors are in the door to record the key turns are not working.

Is there any other way to input the code? Tried putting it in the ignition and pressing buttons on remote but doesn't do anything either.

I'll have a read through the various keycode threads and see if there is anything to help unless anyone has encoutnered this and can tell me what to do.

Cheers

Strange that central locking no longer works on key fob or by turning the key when the new battery was put on.

Wonder if that is why it won't accept the keycode?

Going to try again tomorrow and then arrange for recovery to take it to the garage and let them unlock with the computer.

Right . Keycode lockout you need the code from Landrover any dealer will have it. Second try this. disconnect the battery put the ignition key in but not turned on. keep the door open. reconnect the battery, It May work. (does on mine)

Cheers for the heads up Lowfat, tried it several times with key in first and nothing happened and still had key code lockout warning but then was playing with 10amp fuse in position 11 (had left key in) to check the transfer neutral worked in case it needed to be towed and when turned key on the lockout message had gone and she fired up first time after standing for about 7 months.

Happy days so can now at least can drive if off drive and on to recovery lorry and get it to the garage to begin operation new engine in.

Cheers everyone.

Dr W said:

Cheers for the heads up Lowfat, tried it several times with key in first and nothing happened and still had key code lockout warning but then was playing with 10amp fuse in position 11 (had left key in) to check the transfer neutral worked in case it needed to be towed and when turned key on the lockout message had gone and she fired up first time after standing for about 7 months.

Happy days so can now at least can drive if off drive and on to recovery lorry and get it to the garage to begin operation new engine in.

Cheers everyone.

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I wonder if it really needs a new engine? Black smoke and rough running is often a sign of bacterial growth in the fuel and as it's been standing for 7 months it a strong possibility.

No the rough running happened just after the radiator blew. I suspect that after I put a new radiator on and was bleeding it, it overheated and something broke.

By rough running I mean it sounds like I dropped a load of spanners inside, it also has no power, it could only make it part way up the ramp of the recovery truck and had to be winched the rest of the way.

After chatting to friend who's a mechanic, sticking a new engine in seemed a cheaper option than stripping down the head and trying to fix it, I can do some stuff but stripping an engine down is possibly beyond me, plus it would take loads of weekends and I'd rather have the time spare to do other stuff (as would my Mrs).

Dr W said:

No the rough running happened just after the radiator blew. I suspect that after I put a new radiator on and was bleeding it, it overheated and something broke.

By rough running I mean it sounds like I dropped a load of spanners inside, it also has no power, it could only make it part way up the ramp of the recovery truck and had to be winched the rest of the way.

After chatting to friend who's a mechanic, sticking a new engine in seemed a cheaper option than stripping down the head and trying to fix it, I can do some stuff but stripping an engine down is possibly beyond me, plus it would take loads of weekends and I'd rather have the time spare to do other stuff (as would my Mrs).

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Replacing the engine is an expensive way of fixing a problem that it would seem has not even been looked at with diagnostics. Also if the replacement is second hand, frying pan to fire comes to mind.
Bacterial growth in the fuel will give exactly the symptoms you describe and if the tank is contaminated will quickly affect the replacement engine.
It's your cash, you are entitled to waste it as you please. I hope you are not a real doctor as you seem to know little about diagnostic proceedures.

Nope not a real doctor but this is the timeline of events.

1. Radiator blew (car running fine prior to this and used daily no time for bacteria to grow)

2. Get car home topping up radiator with water, couple of miles, (in hindsight should probably have got it towed but was up a small mountain on dirt tracks and no way to do so easily). Car seemed to be running ok at this point.

3. Week later fit new radiator and start up to bleed radiator, at some point during this process it did overheat but hoped I switched off quickly enough but possibly not. Tried to start again to carry on with process and noticed clouds of smoke and that engine was know making a lot more noise than before (given its a diesel you appreciate this would have to be a lot of noise). Got radiator bled but when tried to run it down the road it had virtually no power. I don't know if this bacteria could grow in a week but never had it before?

4. Couple of weeks later get a mechanic friend of mine to come and have a look, he listened along the cylinders and could hear a bad rattling coming from the one nearest to the bulk head which he said sounded like something was very broken inside. If it was a bacteria then shouldn't every cylinder should be sounding rough not just one? We discussed and the cost of stripping down to find problem and whether it was actually something that could then be fixed and redoing head gasket etc would probably be more time consuming and cost in excess of getting a replacement engine and simply swapping. The engine has also done 172k miles and the replacement only 94k so seemed like the best plan. I've got a 2 week guarantee on the engine once fitted so if any problems with it then we'll take it out and send it back. The engine guy is a person my mechanic knows and he said it was running fine before it was taken out (although appreciate this is no guarantee).

Hopefully once we have the old engine out and can have a look at it we can find out what actually went wrong.

So overall I think I have considered all the options and come up with the best solution for me.

Thanks for the heads up with the diesel bacteria though and I will make sure we ditch the old fuel before we start up.

Ditch old fuel
Replace fuel filters
Clean inside of tank
Clean fuel lines
Clean everything that has been in contact with the diesel!

Thanks for advice.

Is there an easy way to clean the fuel lines? Will pumping clean diesel through do the job or do I need to be using some sort of fuel cleaner?

Cheers

Dr W said:

Thanks for advice.

Is there an easy way to clean the fuel lines? Will pumping clean diesel through do the job or do I need to be using some sort of fuel cleaner?

Cheers

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Bactericide diesel additive from an agricultural supplier or a marina will do the job.
Your time line suggests you are right, RAD blew after HGF or vice versa, cylinder full of water has busted the rings or even the piston.