Thanks! I have checked all the ground points a couple of times. No joy.... I have also tried connecting a wire directly between be alternater mounting point and the negative battery post. The Disco can sit for several weeks without the battery going low so the battery or "leakage" doesn't seem to be the problem. The issue is no charging. The alternator has been rebuilt and another alternator was installed previously. Both tested fine on the bench.

There is a clicking sound from the passenger footwell. It is coming from the box attached to the right side of what seems to be the ECU. It is pictured below.

Please provide any other ideas on what I can check. Thanks!!

 

Have you tried jumping a ground wire from the engine block or alternator housing to the frame? If you have a bad ground at the frame, putting in a jumper wire to the battery post won't work.
One way you may be able to tell if you have a bad ground is to connect a multi meter to battery positive and the bolt on the ground cable. If you don't get a reading of battery voltage, the ground is no good.

 

Thanks for the idea! Just tried jumping between the alternator mountain point and the frame. No change. Battery voltage goes down about 0.2 volts when the Rover is running compared to off still.

 

Have you checked all your fuses and relays? I'm sure there's a charge fuse. Maybe see if you have power there with the engine running.

 

I was just thinking, maybe you could try disconnecting the battery wire at the alternator. Make sure not to ground it out. Then start the engine and connect a multi meter between the body of the alternator and the post for the battery output. That's basically what the bench test is. See if you get a voltage reading that's higher than battery voltage. If you do, maybe it makes voltage, but not amperage. Without amperage, it can't charge the battery.

 

disc oh no, Thanks for the ideas. The symptoms match a bad relay since the problem has been getting progressivly worse for a couple of years. There are lots of relays and without a map, I can not tell which one or two could be the offenders. Hopefully someone can suggest which to swap out.

Thanks also for the idea to bench test the alternator while in the Disco. For the wire to remove (and not ground!) to run the volt meeter between that alternator terminal and the battery ground, is it the one with the larger nut pictured below?

Thanks again.

 

Yes, that's the correct nut.
I think there's a version of the RAVE manual with wiring diagrams.

 

Thanks again disc ho no. It turns out that I have an original hard copy of the RAVE manual from back when my Disco was new. There is a map of fuses but I'm not seeing anything for relays in either the hard or online versions.

For The Test. When connected between the negative battery terminal and the big alternator terminal, the reading without the engine running is just over 2 volts. When running, the voltage is back to 0.2 less than just measuring the battery with the motor off. So, no luck.

Does anyone have additional ideas for me to test?

 

I'd take a look at FL1 in your engine bay fuse box. Then check/clean the connections directly to the right of FL1. That's where both the battery and the ALT connect to the fuse box. Disconnect NEG cable from battery. Remove both cables from fuse box... clean connecting surfaces... and reverse.

Good luck,

Clay

 

Thanks Clay99d2! The connections in the fuse box looked pretty good and I cleaned them as well. First two pictures are "before" cleaning. The third is "after". No change. Voltage at the battery is higher when the engine is not running... Hopefully you and others will have additional ideas for me to run down.