Hey guys,

I just bought a 1999 Land Rover Discovery II with 141,789 miles. I drove it for a few days with no problems. I drove it to the store the other day, turned it off and when I came back, stuck the key in the ignition and got nothing. no dash warning lights, no ding from the key being inserted...nothing. I got the disco jumped and it started right up.. I drove it home and when I turned the it off and tried to restart it...nothing again. I checked the battery and alternator and they were fine. Battery read 12.6, alternator read 14.8 on the voltmeter. I have a Halo Bolt battery charger and I used it to start the disco and it worked. I used an OBD II reader and got a 1508 and the o2 sensor code. As long as I have it hooked up I have dash lights and all the normal noises. I have no clue were to start looking to fix the problem. The previous owner had it for 3 years and stated that he had changed the head gasket, TPS, battery and fuel pump. Any help would be helpful. I love this thing and don't want to just let it sit.

 

Hi there,

To me, it really sounds like the battery is getting flaky. Sounds like it was just tested with a multimeter, rather than a battery tester? Autozone and parts stores have the testers that they can look at the performance of the battery. I'd have them test the battery and the alternator. It really should be tested under load to have any meaning. Batteries that come out 12+ volts with no load on them can still be bad.

You could also have a drain in the electrical system. A light on in the cabin or a maybe a door sensor broken? Also maybe check the ground connections to the battery and body. A Discovery I was looking at buying a while back would not start, no lights, nothing. I opened up the hood, saw some corrosion on the connection to the body, sanded it down a little, and it started right up. Bad connection.

 

Yes. Have it checked at autozone or advance auto. Your connections might be bad and not charging the battery. Or the battery is dead.

 

X2 on that. I would check the hot wire on the starter and trace it back to the battery. Sometimes if the terminals are too tight on the alternator, it won't sent the juice properly to the battery so make sure the studs aren't spinning. Get the load check done and check the water level in your battery. It's an major part of preventative matienance that a lot of people overlook. A dry cell will kill a battery quickly. Only used distilled water to fill it

 

Thanks guys! It turns out the positive terminal was faulty. It was tight on both ends but at some point in it's life it had been bent and straightened back out.

 

Glad to hear you found the issue!

 

It sounds like my problem:


Central Locking Problem Sport & Manual Mode blinking lights, Limp mode activated

I have a 2002 discovery 2 TD5. Can anybody advise me on the following strange scenario:

The car works beautifully, it only has 139,000 km, has hardly been off the road however, when we parked the car, and get out of the car without locking it, it will either not start.

This is not a big problem, it's simply inconvenient because I discovered a way to "life hack" the problem by following the procedure described below:

(1) Lock the doors
(2) Unlock the doors
(3) Open the drivers door (pretend to be getting back in the car )
(4) close the door
(5) Start the Disco

Then there are never any other problems.

Interestingly, if you skip this step (3) Open the drivers door (pretend to be getting back in the car), and simply lock then unlock the doors then the car will start, but only in safety / crawl mode where the "S" and "M" lights are flashing, and the vehicle can be driven in crawl mode.

Has anyone seen this? If so, do you have any suggest for a better workaround?