Flashing M and S green lights on dash????
 

I drove today from Houston to Atlanta where will be for a few months and near the end of the drive the green M and S lights on the dash came on flashing green and also the D next to the odometer and the red light indicator next to the gear shift were flashing.

I had to drive a few miles through a narrow construction zone before I could stop and I put it in park and shut it down. When I restarted it all was ok.

Any thoughts on this? The car ran fine and had no other problems.

Thanks

could just be low battery voltage..what part of atlanta are you staying in?

Agree, check clean and tighten all you battery and ground leads, then get you voltage check with the engine off and at idle, get back to use with the numbers.

I would think that if this happened near the end of a long drive your alternator has given up the ghost or is about to.

Thanks! The battery connection could well be the issue. While working on my Disco last week I noticed that the positive cable seemed loose and when
I went to tighten it it didn't seem to help and actually twisted on the terminal. I'll either torque it down a little more or replace the cable clamp if it is bad but a momentary loss of DC power could be the cause. The battery is a big one and less then a year old and I am having no issues with starting the car.

Chris, do your self a favor, do not remove your factory cable ends, clean them, tighten them up then go get a free battery/alternator test done at your local auto parts store, get back to us with the voltage with the engine off and at idle, I have seen brand new batteries that fail.

Friendly bump.

I am having the same issue. Just one of many from this used 03 Disco Ive bought. I had the battery checked, but only when off. It has 568 crank amps, it was at 100$ charge, and 13.18 volts (or very close to that).

Ive cleaned the terminals, the pos has some corrosion. That seemed to have fixed it for about a week, now it does it all the time. Turning it off, then restarting it sometimes works, but it locked me out once doing that. Wouldnt turn over at all. It seems that when I take off the pos from the battery, resetting the computer, it will be ok for a few days, then starts again.

One thing I did notice, is on the negative lead to the battery, there is what looks like a ground, that is not hooked up. The connection looks like it was in use, because you can see a washer mark on it, where it had some use. But I cant see where it goes. Its about 3 inches back from the end of the cable, where it connects to the battery, and there is nothing there to connect to.

Anyways, this has become a fairly annoying problem. Any suggestions would be great.

Take that wire and somewhere on the fender will be a small hole, find a small bolt and lock washer and screw it to the fender.
If you cant find a hole then make one.
And screw will do, just makew sure that you use a lock washer so that it does not come off again.

I cant find anywhere to put it, or where it may have been. Ill try to upload a pic soon, its pissing rain right now.

I had the same problem and the battery and all the cables were fine. Check your XYZ switch position and make sure that it is tight and in place. Sometimes it gets loose and/or A/C tubes condensation drops into it causing you to lose power and be stuck in 3rd gear. Before I always had to park my car facing out so I never had to reverse, because whenever I reversed and shifted back to drive, the flashing "M" and "S" would start.

what does it mean when the S the O and the L lights are all flashing at the same time? :confused:

Why, I believe that would mean you are S#it outta luck, Nite! :D

Whats the XYZ switch position?

The XYZ switch is the switch that tells the transmission ECU what gear you are in.

Is there an easy way to check this?

Not that I know of.

Some pics of what I was talking about. You can see, that it used to be connected somewhere, but its not now. Is that the original size of the battery? Only thing I can think of is that its a different battery, and thats why it wont reach anywhere.

http://i44.tinypic.com/ic0j6x.jpg
http://i42.tinypic.com/258aqyx.jpg

Hmm, oops. Not sure why the first pic is so big, took them with my cell... sorry if it bothers anyone.

Let me take my glass's off!!
Now let me put them back on!!
LOL!!
Yes that battery is to small, the correct battery would have filled the whole battery tray.

My lights on my '03 Disco have started flashing too. I opened the hood and checked the battery. Everything turned up normal. I don't know what the problem is and it's starting to worry me about how the problem occurs:

I'll drive for 5 minutes and then as soon as I put it in reverse, the transmission shifts REALLY hard. I will back up and then put it in drive, to which the M, S, and D lights start flashing. The trottle even feels less powerful. ]

What the Hell is goin on with my baby?

Go to an auto store and have them test the battery and the alternator.

For the guy that wondered where that clip goes (and I know it's been a long time... but someone else might have the same deal), it's supposed to be clipped to the third bolt on the strip above it, stacked above what is already bolted there. Was just looking at mine. It's probably detatched because they put the wrong size battery in there and it wouldn't reach.

As for this whole flashing m and s green dash lights... it's happening on my 2003 SE. The battery is pretty old, with some corrosion on the posts, but I cleaned them up and tightened and no love. I'm worried about taking it in to get the alternator/battery tested, because this started happening when the vehicle just quits while driving. I pull over, turn the whole thing off and wait a few minutes... and it starts back up, but with the flashing lights. The closest parts store is 35 minutes away, so obviously I'm nervous to make that drive.

Quits while driving - cools off- restarts - great symptoms of the crank position sensor. When this happens, test for spark. No spark = CKP sensor. Can pour cold water on it to reset sometimes. Flashing lights due to poor battery. Murphy's Law is a multi-volume set, seems like you have a couple of volumes checked out already.

Thanks much, Buzz. That definitely gives me something to go on. Perhaps I'll just replace the old battery and get a new sensor. Seems like anything on this rig is old enough to replace, anyway.

I either fortunately or unfortunately took this rig hunting last year in the deep mountains of Colorado. I put several hundred purely-offroad miles on it in the process... and now I'm completely addicted. Still remember the faces of the ATV hunters seeing me emerge from their trails without any difficulty. Don't want to give that up.

Hey guys. I was having this problem too. I had the battery checked and it was ok. Not great, just ok. So I decided to replace it. In doing so, I noticed the terminals on the cables were a bit loose. I tightened them down and the problem went away. Not sure if the battery or the cable fixed the issue. The guy at the battery shop said he had seen this issue before and the battery fixed the issue. In my case, when the lights were flashing, it wouldn't go past third gear. Hope this helps.

+1, defo too small a battery. My wife's Smarty has a battery nearly that big. Check your owners manual or RAVE for the correct size.

If the M&S lights and the gear indicator lights/letters are flashing it usually throws a fault code. Get the codes read and see what's occurring. In my experience the M&S and gear indicators usually flash when there is a autobox selector problem usually with the xyz switch or the wiring on the gearbox. It can also be a low battery charge or alternator charging insufficiently that's why you need the codes read before tearing down stuff unnecessarily. If it's the xyz switch it's repairable internally without spending on a new switch which are huge money for a rubbish rotary switch. I posted a repair somewhere on here for that switch awhile back.

Same Problem
 

Hi guys,

I'm getting the same problem when I turn on the engine, but if I turn off and turn on again the problem is not happening.... Something that I noticed is that if I turn on the engine when the Shift position in on N the lights are not displayed on the Dash, and this is a workaround but for sure I need to check if there is a problem with the xyz sensor, my battery is ok, and I put a new alternator, probably I'll need to replace the battery or replace the fluid on the gearbox....

Flashing M and S lights
 

So last night I was leaving work and when I started my car the M and S light were flashing. I drove through the parking lot, stopped to pull out my owners handbook and turned off the car thinking it might reset. I tried to restart it and all I got was a clicking noise. I then tried to get a jump and every time I tried to start it the alarm would go off. Eventually I got towed home and am getting a new battery and possibly a new alternator to see if that helps the problem.

It say's in the owners handbook that if those two lights flash together that it indicates an electric fault with the automatic gearbox.

So will a new battery and alternator even help the matter or am I going to need to get it serviced??

I've tried in the past to put the car in Low gear following the instructions and haven't been successful yet, it's like it's stuck, which I've heard that can happen over time if you don't ever use it.

It's a 2003 land rover discovery (I don't know if it's a I, II, or III)

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Where do these codes appear??

if your ecu sees less than 13 volts the transmission goes into safe mode.
yes; start with a fresh charge battery and check your charging system.
also check and clean all the ground cable while you under there, they are another cause.


hopefully it will be that simple

Put a new battery in and it started back up no problem, thanks

Had same problem played with all other issues talked about instead of going back have this so called new Battery tested which turned out to be problem with dead cell. Don't Believe just because your Battery is new it's good.

Great work!
Welcome to the forum.