Yeah I should make sure I know how to do that (it's in a weird location if I recall) and that I have the right tool with me to disconnect it. I vaguely remember reading horror stories when trying to restart a defender after the battery has been fully drained or disconnected though, is that still a thing (after software updates)?

 

I used to have a 1993 Range Rover. We took it on vacation when my wife was about 8.9 months pregnant. At the end of the vacation, it refused to start and had the symptoms of a bad battery. I put a battery charger on it, no luck. I tried jumping it, no luck. I finally called a relative who came with his 25 year old Suburban and we towed it home on a dolly from U-Haul. I took it directly to my independent mechanic (having prearranged this with him) on Sunday night and went to work Monday morning. The mechanic called me that morning to say, "What'd you say was wrong with the car? I just started it and moved it into the shop."

Turned out it was a defective battery. One of the plates had come loose and was contacting another, shorting the whole thing out. Our baby was born a few weeks later, and I picked him and my wife up at the hospital in the Range Rover, then sold it.

 

The issue happened again recently. In both instances, we'd left the trunk and doors open for several minutes (changing shoes and relaxing a bit after a long day hike) before trying to start the engine. This time, I hoped re-locking, waiting long enough and then going in and start it right away would reset it, based on what happened the first time. Well it didn't work after 17 minutes... but I tried again, waiting 39 minutes and that time it started! The waits was quite stressful (will it start when I try in X minutes?) as I was in a remote area with no cell signal and far from any services, getting dark and cold.

I took the vehicle back to Land Rover and shared these new details, which allowed them to reproduce the problem and fix it :-) The root cause was a loose starter connector that had caused a fuse to burn out at some point. As a result, the vehicle was relying on the backup battery to start, which usually worked fine when just going in the car and starting it. However, leaving the doors open for an extended period triggered a sleep mode that shut down the backup battery, preventing the engine from starting... Sounds more complicated/fragile than it should be but I'm sure glad I don't have to worry about this anymore :-)

 

Holy smokes! I'm glad your dealer found the root cause and got you sorted. Absent bizarre quality control issues like what you suffered, these are brilliant vehicles.

Best of luck going forward!

Myron

 

I had something similar happen on my '22. I got it, everything powered up, wouldn't start. Got out, waited 10 minutes, lock and unlocked the car, and it started right up. I thought it must be some sort of computer problem but I took it to the dealer and they replaced the starter motor. Never happened again after that. Definitely just take it to the dealer, even things don't appear to be a traditional issue can turn out that way.