HVAC questions

Hi all,

I'm a newbie here, I just picked up my first Range Rover at weekend. A 2002 vogue TDV6. I've been doing a lot of searching on the forum and reading up, some really great info on here for a newbie

I noticed that after a 2 days I got a couple of flashes from the red battery light on the dash so I decided to hook it up to a slow charger as I know the previous owner had stopped using the car so the battery was likely to be weak anyway.

I charged it using a CTEK charger in 'Recondition' mode and it gave it a decent charge and showed it as full on the charger. All seems fine with it since then... but it has only been 2 days!

I've been doing a lot of searching on here and was reading about HVAC resistor issues that are common, so I decided to do a test with a piece of tissue paper on the vents in the heater panel as suggested by some members of the forum. After locking and leaving the car for 30 mins the tissue paper is still being sucked in by the fan, so I'm assuming this definitely means I need to replace the HVAC resistor is that correct? Any other ways of checking? I saw references to a red light but not sure if I misunderstood.

I believe the part number is JG0000021, is this a dealer only part?

In terms of fitting it sound like its awkward to get to, are there any guides? Is it just a couple of panels in the drivers footwell that need to be removed and get your hand up the back near the pedals? or more to it than that?

Thanks in advance for any responses

Adam

welcome

first of all you have a TD6 not a TDV6. not to get mixed up, there both different engines.

the flashing battery light on dash could be a duff alternator.


there a quite a few battery drains on the L322 that cause the battery to drain over a couple of days.

one of the main cuplrits being the heater resistor that you described. it is a pig to get at and change, but once you gain access to the correct area under the drivers footwell it shouldnt take 15 mins to change over.

before you go out and buy a replacement resistor you could simply remove the hvac fuse and see if the battery still drains.

also check the headlight wiper motors, if they dont park closed properly they can also drain the battery as the motor is powered with the ignition off for some stupid reason !



i wouldnt recommend you charge your battery with it still connected to the car. these motors are seriously touchy in regards to their electrics and a minor spike in the charger could render the car useless ! same goes for jump starting..... dont if you can help it !

you can also check your alternator is charging the battery correctly to make sure its ok.



hope this helps a bit

Thanks for the advice, greatly appreciated.

Oh yes TD6! That's what I meant

I must admit, I'm not 100% sure I have a battery drain issue at this stage really. Its not gone flat on me yet, the only thing I've seen is an intermittent flashing red battery light on the dash when I first got it and since the charge it's been fine (point noted about charging in situ)

It is purely the fact I did this tissue paper test and the fan appears to be staying on, this makes me think I'll have issues if I leave it.

My car has had a 2006 facelift conversion so no wipers on headlights but I'll pull the fuse just in case too

I'll try to get my multimeter out to check the alternator too, hoping it's not that :scratching_chin:

webber498 said:

Thanks for the advice, greatly appreciated.

Oh yes TD6! That's what I meant

I must admit, I'm not 100% sure I have a battery drain issue at this stage really. Its not gone flat on me yet, the only thing I've seen is an intermittent flashing red battery light on the dash when I first got it and since the charge it's been fine (point noted about charging in situ)

It is purely the fact I did this tissue paper test and the fan appears to be staying on, this makes me think I'll have issues if I leave it.

My car has had a 2006 facelift conversion so no wipers on headlights but I'll pull the fuse just in case too

I'll try to get my multimeter out to check the alternator too, hoping it's not that :scratching_chin:

Click to expand...

guessing the flashing light on the dash is only doing it with the engine running ?

regarding the tissue test you are doing, remember part of the hvac stays overrunning for a few minutes after the ignition is off. try sitting in the car for 15 mins without opening the doors and check everything shuts down after 15 minutes of waiting.


another thing you have now mentioned.... facelift conversion.... make sure someone hasn't bodged the electrical connections to the new lights. water getting into poor connections could cause all sorts of issues.

In terms of the battery light, It only did it on one journey with the engine running, I then charged it fully for about 12hrs and not seen the light since.

Yes I timed the tissue test for 30 mins and it was still stuck. I'll try sitting in the car with it locked and see if I can hear the fan switch off after 15mins or so to be sure.

I may not even have a problem here, probably worth waiting and seeing if the battery drains or not now I'm using the car each day. Just conscious that it isn't good for the battery to drain it too many times.

Given that HVAC resistor seems to be about £30 I may just change it for peace of mind anyway

I'll also have a look at the headlight connections as I've not checked these either.

Thanks for your help and advice

Ok sat in the car for 15 minutes and the fan does go off, so the tissue I used in the 'tissue test' was clearly just stuck to the plastic rather than being sucked in by the fan!!

I'll just keep my eye on it and try to test the alternator at weekend

webber498 said:

Ok sat in the car for 15 minutes and the fan does go off, so the tissue I used in the 'tissue test' was clearly just stuck to the plastic rather than being sucked in by the fan!!

I'll just keep my eye on it and try to test the alternator at weekend

Click to expand...

good news !

hopefully you don't have an issue

Yeah fingers crossed! Thanks again for your help

No worries bud

Nothing wrong with charging the battery while still connected if using a smart charger such as CTek, always connect the charger to the battery before plugging the charger into the mains and unplug before disconnecting, then there will be no sparks
NEVER do it with any other type of charger though.

Datatek said:

Nothing wrong with charging the battery while still connected if using a smart charger such as CTech, always connect the charger to the battery befor plugging the charger into the mains and unplug before disconnecting, then there will be no sparks
NEVER do it with any other type of charger though.

Click to expand...

Ok thats good to know, thanks. I'm using a CTEK MX25 which is one of the their best chargers and I made sure I connected before attaching to mains. Didn't see any sparks or anything and all seems well.

I think I'm just in shock that the car is in full working order at the moment, I'm actually looking for problems! haha :lol:

I'm glad I've got a car I can tinker with though, my other car is a modified Nissan GTR (R35) so I leave the fiddling with that to the specialist! Should be interesting living with 2 money pits now!

Just to add to this thread... (especially my comment about the car being in full working order)

The alternator failed completely on the car last night (Hippo was correct earlier in the thread) and it had to be recovered. So the flickering of the battery light earlier in the week must've been when the alternator was starting to struggle, then it finally gave up yesterday!

The AA kindly dropped the car at a LR specialist for me to get it sorted