Hi, I just bought a new to me 2005 LR3. love the car but it has died while driving on 3 occasions. Twice while going over RR tracks, once while driving over a small hump in the road. Preceding these events:Rough idle started, heavy/sudden shifting from 1st into 2nd gear, strange braking, A/C was on, radio was on, Daytime headlights on, car was washed within 24 hrs of each occurrence. I was able to restart it after about 30 seconds and I never lost electrical power only the engine and possibly the trans. Battery checked out 12.9V (engine off), 13.5V (engine and accessories on) and 976CCA. Alternator was replaced about a year ago according to my local Land Rover dealer who serviced it for the previous owner. Any help on this issue would be greatly appreciated.

 

Battery volts seem low when at idle with just truck running, would expect more like 13.8 - 14.4. Drive over same tracks to see if it repeats on days when it is dirty. If you can make it do it, so can the dealer. There may be stored codes. If a bad wire connection, it may increase in frequency of failure events. Could be related to electrical connections to fuel pump, etc.

 

Savannah Buzz, thanks for the reply. I'm taking it to the dealer. This electrical stuff is way over my head. But would you then recommend, that the battery be replaced in any case? The date code on it is Oct. 2011. Side note on the battery, the sight window is black. Is that the color it's supposed to be?

 

The LR3 has lots of electronics, and all of it wants a great condition battery. Battery can be tested by most parts stores in the truck, for free. Dealer will have to charge shop clean up fee, environmental fee, chewing gum fee, wash, fold, and press shop towel fee, and in Alaska the shop donut fee.

 

This is years back, but it seems to me that the window showed green when a flashlight was pointed down into the window and the battery was good, at least on a Delco.

As a matter of routine, a couple of times a year, I will put my 3 on a CTEK trickle charger overnight for about a week at a time. The proper battery for a 3 is a lead acid battery of what some call CaCa construction. I am not certain what that means but it is a modern design of battery that Interstate makes.

What I am suggesting is that in the meantime, try charging your battery. It sounds to be only a year old so should be OK and if not the alternator, then perhaps a wire to or from is not so good - sometimes the ground wire is bad off the battery - a not uncommon fault.

Below is a link to some battery data.

DISCO3.CO.UK Photo Gallery - Traxide Dual Battery install in LHDrive

 

Thanks bbyer, lots of good info. I'm new at this whole Land Rover thing and now I see why there is such a large community in support of fellow owners and enthusiasts. I'm taking The Rover over to the auto parts store. They'll check the full charging and starting system including TPS and trouble codes. So at the very least I'll have some info to springboard off of when it eventually has to to the dealers shop.

 

Alternator and regulator files in about ha ff way down re this link.

DISCO3.CO.UK Photo Gallery - LR3 miscellaneous

 

Ok, got the charging system checked. Results; 12.5v engine off, 14.3v engine on (no accessories on), 53amps coming from the battery while running. Alternator checked out diode was good. But the battery only had 70% charge and dropped to 60% while testing. I did leave the headlights on about a week ago but it started right up. I have it on a trickle charger now. Any suggestions? Is the battery bad?

 

Actually the numbers sound good. Charge system voltage appears to be temperature dependent and varies from about 13.6 on a 90F day to about 14.6 on a below 30F day. This is what makes getting the battery fully charged difficult. As such, I am not surprised about the low state of charge.

It seems that PWM charging systems have difficulty fully charging a battery, (any battery) particularily in hot weather. The alternator takes it orders from the Engine Computer, not the electrical system and the software does not seem to beable to measure battery state of charge - no surprise really.

This is not unique in that no other system does either, however in old style systems, the regulator would at least recognize when the battery was overcharged; hence the philosophy was to to keep the alternator output high until the battery voltage suggested near overcharge, ie full charge. Instead now, the Engine Computer kind of sees the battery as just another load and does not worry too much about it - at least that is what it seems like to me. In reality, the Engine Computer imputes a battery temperature and sets a system voltage accordingly; in practice, the theory does not seem to work perfectly but that is why the system voltage fluctuates depending upon the weather.

In other words, yes, get a trickle charger on the battery and keep it there for a week or so to get the state of charge back up; as I said, probably the battery is OK.

The problem might go away or it might be the starter. Also I assume the battery cables are clean at the battery posts; also that the ground cable is tight to that stud about a foot away. The stud is hard to see and tighten but you might try.

 

Well mine did this a couple times while offroaing last weekend. Battery is 6 months old.

It didn't always seem to happen with bumps, but it did coincide at least a couple times.

It was very weird, it was always an instant cut off. No rough idle, no codes. It acted as if I turned the key off.

My guess is also electrical. Where are the grounds located on these?