Hi all,

Ran into a pretty serious issue with my 2003 Disco. I got the car a year ago and worked to excise all the demons of a mediocre service history. Car runs great.
Here's the situation. I parked the car, locking it with the key. I always use the key as I don't have a remote. Anyway, when we return to the car and insert the the key, the car won't unlock. The lock offers no resistance at all. OK research everything on the Internet and it seems that I have somehow put it into super lock(perhaps not but could be) and am beyond hosed. Right, call the dealer and they say to tow it in and they'll 'look it over'. When I suggested that I can't even get into to get it towed the guy gave me the advice to 'just break the window'. So I called a locksmith who worked on it for at least an hour and no luck. This morning I broke the window to gain access. What a mess....
1) flashing LED indicates alarm set
2) opening any door or the hood gets the alarm sounder going in a big way.
3) removing the door card on the drivers side shows everything connects to the latch.
4) power lock switch inside car is inoperative.
5) pulling the battery cable does not reset the situation.
6) pulling the plug on the door latch does nothing.
7) turning key in ignition gets warning lights and power to all circuits but no start when requested.

So any ideas how I can get this car back in service? I'm suspecting that the door latch itself is my problem. If it is, and I'll wait to hear from folks on here before I buy anything, will replacing it reset the system or it something else needed?

I did search this site and while I found a few posts similar in nature, nothing was exactly what I'm experiencing.

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

Might want to give this a try? https://landroverforums.com/forum/di...d-works-45005/

 

Ok, tried that...no luck. How does the system know what I'm doing with the key....I don't see any electrical connection on the lock and nothing physically moves when I rotate the key in the lock.

Thanks for the help so far.

 

OK, found it! I'm ecstatic!

On the back of the lock cylinder there is an 4" long rod with a cross tip..like a Phillips screw driver. The tip engages with the latch assembly. I found the rod lying in there just on top of some door part. Anyway, removed the door handle, used a large flat headed screw driver to turn the latch assembly. Car unlocked and the LED flashed rapidly until I turned the ignition to on. Works normally now. I wonder if that rod is available separately or do I need to buy the whole door handle assembly? It's just pinned into the handle with a small roll pin.

Thanks again for the help and the excellent information available here....

 

BW_Hunter, this happened to me a few years ago and I did a write up over on DWEB about replacing the broken rod with a modified 20d nail. That thread is linked here. Good luck.

 

Thanks! What a great idea! I'll try that this weekend....

 

Sooo now tell us about the window replacement , new used pullapart ?

 

Wow, lucky find! Good job!

 

It was Ebay to the rescue. A driver's side front window cost $68.00 plus shipping.

I used the procedure from the Service Manual download from Rave. I did find a problem with the procedure. The procedure has you remove the interior panel, then the outside mirror, then 4 bolts holding the window frame to the door. Two of the bolts are Torx headed bolts and accessable from the outside...one in front and one in back of the door closed faces. The other two bolts are on the inside of the door and hold the window track to the door itself. What the manual doesn't tell you is that there is another bolt up high accessable through a hole in the door panel. You'll easily see it if you remove all the water shield and happen to be looking for it. I didn't do either and ended up searing a bit until my lovely wife mentioned that it looks "bound up" in that one spot...chuckle.

All in all, it's quite easy to change the window out and adjustment is pretty simple.