So I’m all of 1 month and 1,300 miles into ownership of my first Land Rover product - a brand new Defender 110 X - and the vehicle has been at the dealership for 25% of it. Came out to the garage one morning and the car was completely dead, no response or alerts or anything. LR roadside service towed it to the dealership 2 hours away where it’s been ever since. They originally thought it was a defective battery and swapped in a new one, only to have the vehicle kill that one as well. Their technicians are perplexed and seem uncertain where to go next, other than to get the manufacturer involved.

Has anyone experienced something similar with a (hopefully) happy ending? I’ve owned something like 8 or 9 BMWs, Audis, Volvos and a Benz and never had anything like this. I’ve certainly read about Land Rover’s reliability stigma but hoped that was the LR of yesteryear and things would be sorted out by now. This obviously hasn’t been the case for me.

 

Yes very common problem. My 2023.5 D110 XD SE has the same issue. I have had to keep a tender on my Battery routinely. This issue also affects your Pivi software updates. People’s assumptions have cycled through bad batteries, large current draws when doors are opened and under sized batteries and alternators.

 

It is a very poorly designed electrical system. Underspec on both the alternator and the battery for the number of gizmos installed. For my purposes it has made it a non-wilderness spec vehicle. It will kill your battery very quickly unless you drive it 30-40 minutes a day continuously, not stopping. Getting a CTEK or the like battery tender is mandatory. The vehicle should have come with one. In fact it should have a solar panel on top instead of the stupid puddle lights or the colored brakes. 4 years, going on 5 now and JLR, nor any of the other manufacturers have advanced any solutions. Part of the problem was to appear "Green" they made the alternator smaller for fuel consumption and the battery diminutive for content based environmental ratings. We suffer. I am going on my 4th battery in two years, my wife's, two in the first year on her RR.

 

Sorry for your troubles! Hopefully the dealer can get it figured out. Which powertrain do you have out of curiousity?

 

@jq4138 don't let him sour you on the Defender. Clearly there's a problem with your new Defender and they'll fix it. Sorry for the troubles though, out of the gate that's not an impressive showing.

@Dogpilot I'd disagree that it's "a very poorly designed electrical system". The battery isn't undersized. It charges fine. The alternator's capacity is greater than any other JLR product except the new FFRR Autobiography... Just because this is your experience and you have a problem with your truck does not mean it's a poorly designed system.

 

Appreciate all the quick replies. I have the P400 motor and the batteries are getting killed within hours of running the vehicle.

 

There is a TSB out for the newest Defenders for something called "quiescent battery drain from door modules". I wonder if that's it? See attached PDF. Did your dealer not immediately complete this TSB?

July 19, 2024 MANUFACTURER COMMUNICATION NUMBER: DEFENDER_N811_19JUL24
Components: UNKNOWN OR OTHERNHTSA ID Number: 11006127
Manufacturer Communication Number: Defender_N811_19JUL24
Summary A potential concern has been identified where customer could be left with a nonfunctioningvehicle as a result of a depleted battery State of Charge due to the doormodules staying awake. Retailers will perform a software update to all doormodules

 

It says model 2020-2022 only but I thought it was for 2022-2024 model years btw. I think it applies to the newest Defender as well. And attached here is the actual tech doc as PDF, the above attachment was a customer notification letter.

 

Super helpful! Thanks for posting. I’ll make sure to share this with the dealer.

 

Total bummer for you but I'm confident they'll get to the bottom of it (if nashvegas hasn't already!).

Just to balance out the sample set above, I've had my Defender 90 P300 going on three years now, and tend to only take short drives (3-5 miles) every couple of days -- and sometimes every other week or so. I've even had the Battery Monitor System (BMS) module unplugged from the negative terminal of my battery under the seat since the first week of ownership (was a cheap hack to disable the start-stop) and still have never had a single problem.

Pls keep us posted. You'll love it once they get this sorted.