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Last week my 2020 Defender decided to randomly activate its SOS Emergency Call System three times in one day whilst sitting in the garage, which resulted with the Police showing up for two of the occasions and the third time calling me to make sure all was well. At the same time the SOS Limited message displays in the message centre
When at service centre I was told that there are two back-up batteries ( guaranteed for 3 years) that maintain full system operation in the event that the vehicle's battery is disconnected or disabled. When the batteries require replacement, the "SOS Limited" displays in the message centre.
At there same time they have found fault with the SOS unit module and that is on backorder and will take several weeks to arrive. Till then I hope I have no more visits from the police. The SA mentioned that this has been happening to several of their Defenders recently ?!?
Posted the above in June this year and still, every couple of weeks my vehicle decides to have a friendly chat with the local emergency services, much to the annoyance of them. After many calls with my local dealership and now JLR, the idea was to remotely turn off the SIM card in the vehicle which would mean no more OTA updates and no SOS calls till the module is replaced.
The vehicle has been hooked up to TOPIX and Pathfinder? and every module was out of date, but most importantly the telematics module (which is the problem) turns out has a battery issue, so the service centre's idea of replacing the module is incorrect.
The SA at my local dealership tried ordering a replacement battery in June 2022 and has let me know it won't be available till May 2023! By all accounts I am one of 15 customers locally that is having the same problem with errant SOS calls and with the national backorder of batteries this is starting to be a problem.
Amazingly, yesterday, I found the needed battery in the UK from "LR Centre Limited Sales" and for the modest price with delivery of $50, I will have it next week and fitted, yet LR-USA cannot get this rectified till May next year!
Really, fired the CEO? I must have missed that announcement. Should have also taken out some of the folks who had more direct responsibility!
Reminds me of many years ago. Was working for a small software shop. One day the police showed up. Said we called 911. Happened several times and they got more peeved. Traced it back to a server where someone jokingly/mistakenly set it up to dial 911 whenever a fault occurred!!
The part arrived ever so quickly from the UK (within a week) and so I called up my local service centre who actually refused to fit it as they did not source the part and could verify its OEM authenticity. So with a little help of Simon from Powerfuluk and his videos on removing the interior side panel, I fitted it myself. All in all it took about 2 hours to remove and replace the panels and the actual battery was simple to fit and the fault is now rectified. The vehicle no longer calls the authorities, the SOS warning notification is no longer showing and I am happy...... apart from with the dealership/service centre.
I have been in contact with JLR at Mahwah and I have sent a bill for the cost of the part and also my time fitting it. I doubt very much they will honor this, but it does not hurt to try and ask. I will also be looking to use another service centre from now on.
Whilst I had the panels off, I also replaced the rear seat latches for ones that allow the rear seats to recline further back, which is a vast improvement making it comfier for longer journeys.
SOS Emergency Call system Malfunction
