I filled my Discovery up with gasthe other day, went to start it and nothing. Luckily the gas station was able to do a jump start. Came home, turned it off and it started fine. Let it cool for a couple of hours, went to go start and click..nothing. Thought it might be the battery. Took the Diehard battery back to Sears (only a year old), they ran the battery test and it was GTG. Brought the battery back home, still wouldn't start. Neighbor tried to jump start, again nothing, just click. He said it might be the starter. All it does is click once. Anyone else had a similar issue. I am going to end up having to have it towed to the local garage for them to do a test. Love the Discovery, but I have been having problems. Any suggestions??

 

Sounds like the starter too me if the battery is okay.

 

Sorry to hear you were having problems, what did they find?
The clicking sound you heard was from the starters solonoid not getting enough starting voltage. My bet is on that Die Hard.
Mike

 

Hi Mike

I have heard of this before. How old is your car, how much mileage has it done and how many times a day do you start your Disco? What engine is it?

Paul

 

My truck is a 99 D2 with 80,000 miles on it. Sometimes it sits foe a couple of days before starts, sometimes I go out a couple of times a day to run errands.
There are usually on't a couple of things that will cause a clicking no start, bad battery, bad starter and bad connections.
As for that Sears DieHard, you couldn't make a deep enough hole for me to throw it in, they are junk from the start.
Mike

 

Mike, I don't know what type of engine you have, is it a gasoline or diesel? What capacity is it? There are several possibilities for you to check: My best guess would be the solenoid, item 3 listed below. Please let me know what you find.

1) battery - (but this is a new battery and has been tested)
If you leave the vehicle for long periods, then the battery will drain down. It is essential to keep it fully charged all the time. There are many tests that can be performed to check if you have a good battery. Note that just a voltage test will be insufficient to determine if the battery is good or bad. If the battery is bad, then the wipers will be slow, the horn will be soft and you will hear the engine trying to crank slowly. You may even hear the starter clicking very fast.

If you buy a new battery, make sure you buy one that is fresh. The longer a battery sits without being used, the more likely it is to degrade. Think of a plant without water, it will die and nothing can be done to fix it. When you buy a battery, check the date stamp on it, this will be the date of "formation" of the battery, and is the date that the battery was first filled and charged. You should try to make sure that the battery is less than 3 months from formation AND has a high enough voltage without ever having been recharged. 12.45Volts is the genenerally accepted approximate voltage (about 3 months of no use) before sulfation sets in. You should also go for a good technology battery, take note of the terms calcium, silver etc in the title. Don't bother wih a "maintenance free" battery, you need to be able to add electrolyte and the "low maintenance" batteries are usually the exact same but with the ability to open it and add water.

2) parasitic (quiescent current) electrical drain on the battery
Has the vehicle been checked for quiescent current? Usually a vehicle will be below about 50mA, with the really good design vehicles below about 20mA. If something is wrong, you will have more than 500mA. this is a job for an autoelectrician to diagnose and fix. This fault can weaken a battery.

3) starter solenoid worn out
If you hear the starter click just once when you turn the key, then this is possibly something to look at.
Solenoids wear out as a result of a spark jumping across the solenoid contacts. This is normal and the wear out follows the same principles of physics as wear on the old distributor points. If this is the case, then a good autoelectrician should be able to replace only the solenoid and save you some money over a complete starter motor. if you have a Denso type of starter motor, then you can replace the starter solenoid contacts only, see http://www.nationsautoelectric.com

4) wiring to the starter solenoid
Sometimes the wire to the starter works loose, corrodes or is in a bad way because the engine oil and heat bake the plastic insulation and cause a fatigue failure on the wire or a bad joint.

5) alarm/immobiliser, ignition, switch etc... sorry I can't help you with these


Paul

 

Paul,
You have e with the guyi having starting problems. I was just one of the people replying to his problem.
Mike

 

I'm going to second the starter as well. Just a few months ago I had to replace the starter on my Buick (Looks like almost the same starter, the Disco does have a Buick engine afterall). Anyway, mine started requiring more and more power to turn over until finally nothing could provide enough power to turn it over. I had originally thought my battery was going bad as well, replaced the battery which worked for a bit, but eventualy the current draw was too high for the new battery.

Now, here is the thing, get it replaced like, yesterday. In my vehicle, the current draw became so high that it ended up frying the battery cable to the alternator! Basically, I called a tow truck for a jump start, we tried turning it over, which it slooowwwwly did, until the tow truck driver shouted those three words "STOP! Somethings smoking!"

Anyway, hope you get it going.

 

My '99 Discovery TD5 is also having a similar problem to what bluebell originally described. Sometimes you'll turn the ignition to 'III' and there'll be a loud tick, even a very light 'jolt' of mechanical force you can feel from the driver's seat, but it doesn't turn over. However, usually if you try a few times (turn from II to III to II to III....) it'll eventually catch and start. Last time I had to try 20 times, I shudder to think what it's doing to the electrics (as when u turn to III everything turns off and turns back on again at II) so I'm getting the starter motor solenoid replaced asap, upon my mechanics' recommendation (the battery is little over one year old and high quality too).

 

I would suggest you clean all you battery connections as well as the alternator and starter. If it still happens go to the shop and have them run a load test on your battery and alternator.
Good luck,
Mike