Disco 3 (LR3) It’s lost it’s mind…

D3 ‘57 HSE Auto 160kmiles

Fault free for many Months, parked up for a few days on the drive then out of nowhere the alarm starts triggering for no obvious reason, this then develops into Hazard Lights flashing while unlocked and interior fan/lights running, lots of cycling-rebooting sort of noises but wouldn’t cancel until vehicle started. Symptoms disappear then 6hrs later (23:00hrs) alarm and weirdness starts again - like a poltergeist has moved in. Fired up and went for a trip up the road and the Yellow dash warning light appears along with Transmission Fault, Parking Brake Applied and various other rapidly appearing/disappearing error messages. Only way to stop the madness was disconnect the battery (just ahead of Eunice arriving).

AA come out following morning, reconnect the battery and the madness starts again ‘it’s beyond us mate, it’s full of error codes - but can’t see what’s wrong’. It then was locked up and left during the storm and it behaved - as in no flashing indicators or alarm triggered.

Went to start this morning, fires up no probs but immediately get the Park Brake and Transmission Fault limited programmes alert.

So, it has a recent expensive battery, but haven’t put a meter on it yet while running (it’s hosing down outside) the EPB engages/releases no problem, new Torque Converter last Year, brake pedal switch was replaced 12mths ago, otherwise all appears A1 and have no misbehaving in use.

Any popular known root causes that trigger this type of madness? I’m guessing water ingress or rodent damage, but thought I’d ask before sending it to the overloaded local indie specialist!

Low battery? <12.7v

You are going to need to check all the main battery and earth cables, see the small black box on the battery pos terminal? Iirc thats a fuse and there is another one down by the gearbox.
Could also be alternator gone nuts, be aware if thats the case it can wreck your new battery pdq.

I highly recommend leaving one ot hese in the cig lighter full time.
Had one in my D3/S2/90/boat for years, great little devices.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/393829303476?hash=item5bb20e44b4:g:RxYAAOSw7rZhyvav

DanClarke said:

Low battery? <12.7v

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Could be on to something there….

Fired it up and runs at 14.3v so alternator is fine and no madness on the dash! but according to my Cetek smartypants charger the Battery is not in good spirits (12mths old!) so is now plugged in getting a treat. The scabby old Defender that I had to move to make way for the Disco fired up without a grumble after Two weeks of being ignored

Tayna may have to replace this Exide Battery if its failing already…..

slomofo said:

Could be on to something there….

Fired it up and runs at 14.3v so alternator is fine and no madness on the dash! but according to my Cetek smartypants charger the Battery is not in good spirits (12mths old!) so is now plugged in getting a treat. The scabby old Defender that I had to move to make way for the Disco fired up without a grumble after Two weeks of being ignored

Tayna may have to replace this Exide Battery if its failing already…..

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Exide are dogshti, Mine started to go after 18mths, contacted Tayna and they said send it back to them, yeh right thats going to be easy, lesson learnt never again buy batteries online!

Yuasa from Halfords with a trade card 114 quid, lasted 3 yrs and they just changed it foc as it was starting to get weak, still started but had the odd odd warning come up which is first sign its failing, so much the same money as the Exide and lasted twice as long.

Good insight - cheers, will push some buttons with Tayna and go for a ‘less Shti’ product

Plus 1 what @lynall said

had exactly the same situation Ref the exide and tayna , battery was useless and didn’t last very long

also went to halfords and got a Yuasa , won’t ever buy a battery online again seeing if u need to send it back it will be expensive and also some couriers won’t accept a battery

Plus wouldn’t ever have exide again, pile of crap , battery without charging the disco will last around 3 x weeks ,

do have a 100 watt solar panel and a DC to DC charger that I intend to fit

gstuart said:

Plus 1 what @lynall said

had exactly the same situation Ref the exide and tayna , battery was useless and didn’t last very long

also went to halfords and got a Yuasa , won’t ever buy a battery online again seeing if u need to send it back it will be expensive and also some couriers won’t accept a battery

Plus wouldn’t ever have exide again, pile of crap , battery without charging the disco will last around 3 x weeks ,

do have a 100 watt solar panel and a DC to DC charger that I intend to fit

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I found with the exide if car left for a few days it did not inspire confidence in its cranking abilities

I stopped using tanya batteries due to issues with to many batteries failing and there exchange/ replacment policy ie non existant. When you have an issue they just don't give a ****e

Well, Tayna have sent me a return label to send back the battery that is so obviously cack- what do I do in the meantime? ‘Buy another Battery and we’ll refund you if the return is found to be faulty’. It’s hassle you don’t need ….

Will keep you posted!

slomofo said:

Well, Tayna have sent me a return label to send back the battery that is so obviously cack- what do I do in the meantime? ‘Buy another Battery and we’ll refund you if the return is found to be faulty’. It’s hassle you don’t need ….

Will keep you posted!

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This is all a bit weird to me as so many on here have said that Tayna are good and I bought a batt for my Disco on this say-so and it turned out to be both cheap and good.

Stanleysteamer said:

This is all a bit weird to me as so many on here have said that Tayna are good and I bought a batt for my Disco on this say-so and it turned out to be both cheap and good.

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I think tayna are actually okay, but distance selling and warranty suff on lead acid batteries is always going to be an issue, I know I make sod all difference but they are not getting any of my business again.
So for every day cars running everyday batteries I am sure they are fine, but cars that are known to be hard on batteries not so much.
People favoured the Exide 019 as it was always cheaper than the other brands.

My old Exide now lives on my s2, and it spins it over a treat, but on the D3 it was a dismal affair.

Sadly, I've had good and bad experiences* with Tayna and Battery Megastore .... but, TBH, I don't think it was the retailers fault per se, I think modern batteries seem to fall into the "no QC" school of customer service - if you get a good one = cool.... and if not, well .....

(*= more PITA than anything else )

I've tried the buying local too - actually had two Yuasa's from the local place not that long ago, one in a tractor, the other for our Gennie ( same engine ), and one of them failed quick sharp ....

Had a new Varta for SWMBO's D1 last year - completely DOA ... but it got replaced - just took a few days...

Stanleysteamer said:

This is all a bit weird to me as so many on here have said that Tayna are good and I bought a batt for my Disco on this say-so and it turned out to be both cheap and good.

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+1 I’ve had several Batteries from Tayna on various Vehicles (mostly LandRover, some BMW/VAG) never had an issue - so this is a 1st and it’s the law of averages at play! If Tayna confirm it’s faulty and refund then all is well - it’s just a ball ache to buy another Battery, swap out and then pack and send. The downside of online sales for hazardous goods…..

Ironically the Exide unit I had in my D2 was fine, so if it’s a QC issue for the 019 in a D3 then Sod’s law.

Could have been worse!

Given up on Tayna, getting the Battery back to them to test is nigh on impossible as no courier wants to carry a battery and Tayna won’t do a swap out service or provide a shipping label on their account. So I bought a better battery (Yuasa) locally on my Halfords Trade card for less than Tayna would charge - it will last long enough for me to sell the Disco ( new front discs going on as well!) and if it fails I can bark at the local store.

I had a battery check done on the Exide unit by the local indie - it was classed as ‘good’ but only just - Tayna suggested I could give it a charge up! Seeing as it sat on the CETEK all night, was driven a 1/2hr to get it tested and it still was weak supports the theory that Exide 019 are poo.

Ho hum - I’m sure it will serve a useful purpose as a doorstop….

slomofo said:

Given up on Tayna, getting the Battery back to them to test is nigh on impossible as no courier wants to carry a battery and Tayna won’t do a swap out service or provide a shipping label on their account. So I bought a better battery (Yuasa) locally on my Halfords Trade card for less than Tayna would charge - it will last long enough for me to sell the Disco ( new front discs going on as well!) and if it fails I can bark at the local store.

I had a battery check done on the Exide unit by the local indie - it was classed as ‘good’ but only just - Tayna suggested I could give it a charge up! Seeing as it sat on the CETEK all night, was driven a 1/2hr to get it tested and it still was weak supports the theory that Exide 019 are poo.

Ho hum - I’m sure it will serve a useful purpose as a doorstop….

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So thats another customer Tayna have lost, the internet is fine for most things, but some things you cant beat buying in person, the halfords warranty alone is worth the small extra cost.
The new Yuasa I have fitted has stopped the odd random error popping up, still starts better, alternator now runs at 14.7/8, towards the end of the 3 yr old Yuasa it was running at 15.1v pretty much all the time.

slomofo said:

Given up on Tayna, getting the Battery back to them to test is nigh on impossible as no courier wants to carry a battery and Tayna won’t do a swap out service or provide a shipping label on their account. So I bought a better battery (Yuasa) locally on my Halfords Trade card for less than Tayna would charge - it will last long enough for me to sell the Disco ( new front discs going on as well!) and if it fails I can bark at the local store.

I had a battery check done on the Exide unit by the local indie - it was classed as ‘good’ but only just - Tayna suggested I could give it a charge up! Seeing as it sat on the CETEK all night, was driven a 1/2hr to get it tested and it still was weak supports the theory that Exide 019 are poo.

Ho hum - I’m sure it will serve a useful purpose as a doorstop….

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hiya

had same issues , couldn’t find a courier that would accept a battery , funny enough on my older landies I always had bosch but with the D3 indeed got the same yuasa 019 , just about fits and better than the exide by miles , plus can’t remember if the exide was an 017

glad u got it sorted out and was also in the same boat of just cutting my losses , will be nice when I get round fitting my 100 watt renogy solar panel I got last year , still need to get some long roof rails, will then be nice having that as a back up to keep both my batteries topped up

lynall said:

Exide are dogshti, Mine started to go after 18mths, contacted Tayna and they said send it back to them, yeh right thats going to be easy, lesson learnt never again buy batteries online!

Yuasa from Halfords with a trade card 114 quid, lasted 3 yrs and they just changed it foc as it was starting to get weak, still started but had the odd odd warning come up which is first sign its failing, so much the same money as the Exide and lasted twice as long.

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Blast. Ive just bought a new Yuasa from Halfords for the wifes car, I completely forgot I have a trade card in my wallet.

Col

Colthebrummie said:

Blast. Ive just bought a new Yuasa from Halfords for the wifes car, I completely forgot I have a trade card in my wallet.

Col

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Take the receipt and your trade card, bet you a beer they give you the discount.
Mine went from 142 to 114 quid.

lynall said:

Take the receipt and your trade card, bet you a beer they give you the discount.
Mine went from 142 to 114 quid.

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Good idea, I'll try that ta

Col