P38 electrical calamity!

Picked up my mum from the station last night, was 2 miles from home when suddenly all these warning messages started flashing up one by one: traction failure, gearbox failure, bulb failure, and a few others. Various dashboard warning lights started going on and off, then the lights went dim and the car ground to a halt.

It started fine this morning, but then all the warning messages started popping up again and the other issue is that the EAS isn't working; I'm pretty sure the compressor is fine, as I only replaced a month or so ago, but it's not switching on.

The car has been absolutely fine up until now, last night was the first time I'd driven it after being away for a week or so. Is this something I can sort out myself? Any suggestions gratefully received!

Sounds like a BECM failure, this is located under the drivers seat, they are not generally interchangable so have a search on the forum as I have seen somewhere about having these repaired, possibly by a company called carelect demon?

Check out your charging systems first, if the alternator or battery are on their way out then a low voltage will cause multiple alarms as you experienced. Then system earths, an earth connection can be an intermittant fault with similar results.

check the battery has a good charge, also check the terminals as a loose earth can cause intermittent power loss due to vibration.

also the alternator may have gone causeing loss of power.

start with the chaepest options first!!!!

mowf said:

last night was the first time I'd driven it after being away for a week or so. Is this something I can sort out myself? Any suggestions gratefully received!

Click to expand...

I have to agree with gav and lan, it will be your alternator or battery or possibly both as a dying alternator will kill an ok battery pretty quickly. Get a multi meter out and test out the voltage of the battery and what the alternator is putting out when running.

See RangeRovers.net • View topic - Electrical problems + Battery disconnect/replace procedure for help on checking battery, alternator etc

Let us know how you get on!

-Wills

Sounds like I may well have been a bit hasty in advising on possible BECM failure, I'll take on board the comments regarding the alternator/earth issue, always good to get other ideas on these things. Hope I didnt lead you too astray MOWF, hopefully the others responses have given you a fix for this issue.

Another thing to check is the engine bay fuse box, lift the relays out one by one and check for burning around the socket areas, this is another common fault and can cause bcem like problems.

Thanks for your thoughts chaps. Had a quick check with the multimeter today and found that the battery was about 11.7V with the engine turned off, then went down to about 10.3V with the engine running. I then checked the voltage drop across the lead from the alternator and found it was about 6V! Disconnected the lead at the alternator end, gave it a good seeing to with a wire brush, plugged it back in and the battery is now sitting at over 14V at idle, which suggests that it was a faulty connection between the (hopefully fully functional) alternator and battery resulting in a failure to charge.

Cautiously optimistic that this will have solved the problem. I'm away for a couple of days so I'll risk a few short trips in it when I get back to see if it's sorted itself out.

Also hoping it will stop telling me the bonnet's open when it's not...

Thanks again.

Sounds like youve found the problem and fixed it for nothing ! Wouldnt it be great if all problems where like that. Well done Fella.

from my limited experience with p38's i have come to the assumption that they were built a bit shoddy, just the attention to the details that cause all these problems. its more annoying most of the time than expensive ti fix!!

still love mine tho!!!

Also good quality old fanshioned servicing helps a lot, partticularly if the mechanic knows this type of vehicle.