Our 1997 Land Rover was running fine yesterday. We drove home last night and parked it in the yard. This morning my wife went to leave she said it was a dead battery. I went out to check and charge the battery. When I tried to start it to confirm the battery was dead. I immediately hear a rapid clicking. It sounded like it was coming from the glovebox/dash area. After holding the key on to the start position to try and locate the sound…..8-10 second later the starter engaged. It turned over fine (RPM) but would not start. My immediate thought was no fuel. I remembered reading about and emergency fuel shut off switch. I located that under the hood and pushed the reset button on the top. I then tried starting. Same problem BUT with the hood open the clicking was much louder in the engine compartment. I could not localize the problem (the source of the clicking). Any suggestion of where I might look or do to isolate the source would be welcome. I did try plugging in my OBD meter. No error codes at all.

Thanks for any suggestions.

 

The starter's solenoid. Check your battery cables, check every connection the battery cables connect to and also the ground straps from engine to frame. Clean them if you even think they're corroded. If you've never replaced the starter and your over 120k on the vehicle I'd strongly suggest replacing it. Best of luck.

 

It does have a new starter in it less the a year old less than 5000 miles. Would a bad solenoid cause it to not start even after it turns over? Does the solenoid interact with the electrical system to enable the spark. My initial thought was the solenoid but once the starter engaged and the car turned over (still clicking with turning over) I moved on to thinking it either didn't have spark or fuel.

We just got this LR a little over a year ago so I am still learning it's ins and out. It was a one owner car. Kept in a garage. Less the 90k on it. Otherwise well maintained. Thanks again for the reply. I'm enjoying the forum and the LR. Although wrenching on it is not quite as much fun at 67 as I had envisioned.

 

Multifunction Relay. Its a smallish black box near the charcoal canister. Mine crapped out and caused the same issue.

 

I followed the suggestion above (battery connections & multifunction relay) with not much luck. Whenever I turned the key to the position 2 I could hear a clicking. I finally dug in under the dash on the passenger side. With it open it was clear what relay was clicking. I could see it and feel it. I pulled the relay ordered a new one. Arrived today. Installed it turned the key …. no clicking…. tried starting it….. it fired right up. I let it run for a few minutes seemed fine. Shut it off buttoned up the dash. Left it for a while doing other things. Went to start it to go downtown……… clicking… clicking…clicking….! Won't start. Now what? By the way I bought two new relays so I tried the second one CLICKING right away. Thanks.