Lights, warning sounds and then…..

Evening all, my disco 2 TD5 (02 plate) has been parked up for a couple of months, i charged the battery fully and began driving it yesterday, tonight i pulled up in a layby and then all the amber lights came on within the dash (TC,Hydraulic rear etc) i then heard the chime noise which indicates the rear suspension is flat, and then that was it, the back dropped down to ground level and wont raise back up, i managed to crawl back home but scraped the odd bump along the way.

Any thoughts on whether this is a common fault (electrical, suspension balloon or the pump)

Grateful for your thoughts

Check the battery in the morning and see what voltage you've got

So, battery checked, shows 10-11v, managed to start the car this morning and the back climbed up and levelled off, (didnt need to use my trolley jack to get it started either).

Thinking back to last night, i had lights on, radio on, heater panel on and the amber dash lights all came on after i had sat idle for a short while in the layby... then the back dropped down.

When i accelerated the dash warning lights disappeared, when i came off the throttle they reappeared and the chiming started (to suggest my rear end was down).

Could the alternator cause this (i.e. does the compressor use this) or could it be something else?

check the output volts of the alternator at idle with no electrical load. do the same with high electrical load. Repeat at 2000rpm
a battery resting at 10-11v is terminal.. excuse the pun

Low output on the alternator at idle - i am guessing if i replace this, the problem should stop (hopefully)

Ok so the new battery that i bought turned out to be one that sat on the shelf through COVID and wasn't fit for sale, they replaced it with another one and the car started fine - without load the battery was 12.9v and under load showed 12.4v - looking at a number of videos on the internet i believe i should be having something in the region of 14v with the LR at idle - i am replacing the alternator on tuesday.

Alternator replaced and battery now charging under load at 13.9~, seems to have fixed it so far... will see

Mustard said:

Alternator replaced and battery now charging under load at 13.9~, seems to have fixed it so far... will see

Click to expand...

Hi, what make of alternator did you go for? I'm just replacing mine at the moment. I would have done just the brushes, £10, but the copper slip ring was fubar so having to replace the whole shooting match .

I went for a Britpart replacement ERR6999 - not sure whether we can put the links up but I got it here.

https://www.lrdirect.com/err6999-alternator-assy

Mustard said:

I went for a Britpart replacement ERR6999 - not sure whether we can put the links up but I got it here.

https://www.lrdirect.com/err6999-alternator-assy

Click to expand...

I see from the link the Britpart ones are out of stock & a couple of places I spoke to said they were having supply problems with mid price alternators although the Denso ones were available. I managed to get a Hella unit at a reasonable price.
Did you strip yours down (you just have to take the back cover off) to see if it was just the brushes, might be worth it ? Mines done 167,500 miles on the original unit but I'm going to source the damaged slip ring & replace that, along with the £10 brush box & keep it as a spare.

Hi, no my mechanic simply replaced the whole unit which also came with the vacuum pump apparently.

went out for a drive tonight and noticed that the wipers went quicker than they have done for months, phone charger worked more quickly in charging the phone and my dash lights no longer dimmed when sitting at idle, the old unit must have been absolutely ruined

Mustard said:

Hi, no my mechanic simply replaced the whole unit which also came with the vacuum pump apparently.

went out for a drive tonight and noticed that the wipers went quicker than they have done for months, phone charger worked more quickly in charging the phone and my dash lights no longer dimmed when sitting at idle, the old unit must have been absolutely ruined

Click to expand...

I'll have to see if there's any difference electrically with mine if I manage to fit it tomorrow, what I had noticed over the last couple of weeks is the usb charger/volt meter that's plugged into the fag lighter socket showed 14.4 volts from cold but dropped to 13.5v when hot.
Glad yours is all sorted I hope mine follows suit !