Hi I,m a new member, My first landy was a 1975 series three which i owned for 8 years and enjoyed all the ups & downs.

In July i bought a 2003 Discovery 11 TD5 auto, on Friday i started it up and got the M&S lights flashing, after turning it on and off, it cleared but came back on saturday and sunday, but cleared each time after switching it on and off a few times. On monday it started with no flashing lights, i took it to a local mechanic who did a diagnostic and got a fault reading of OE Position switch, he directed me to a local company that services and repairs auto transmissions they said its the XYZ switch a common problem.

I have spent hours searching the Disco forums reading all the comments about this problem and it seems a nightmare, people have replaced the switches only to have the problem come back, changed batteries, repaired chafeing wires. Is there a way of checking the switch whilst its off the car.
And are there any Discos out there that are not problematic, i purposely avoided the freelander as i know of a few people that have had serious problems with them.

 

Those blinking together mean low voltage. Did you check your battery connections? Alternator?

 

Hi i havent checked the battery with a meter, but physically looked this evening at the dot it was black, and it should be green, but the engine fires up and starts with no problem, if it is the battery would it still show a fault of OE Position switch on the diagnostic.

Many thanks

 

Quit looking at that old batterys black dot. Take it and have the charging system tested with the correct tester, voltage when running needs to be between 13.6 and 14.4 volts or those lights will flash.

 

I had the same issue two weeks ago. Last week I had a dead battery. It was the alternator. My truck started fine for week after I cleared the codes. Check your alternator!

 

hi Guys I would like to thank you for your advice, are these Discovery 11 so fragile. I have bought this not for posing or greenlaning,but to use it in a farming comunity on an unmade road leading to my house and in temperatures which can go as low as -20.

After spending hours trawling the forums asking Land Rover garages for advice and sourcing the dreaded XYZ switch, because the ECU gave that as the fault. I have booked the car into a Automatic Transmission specialist who said its a common fault, on one of the Land Rover forums a guy said, stop messing around as ultimately it will turn out to be a faulty swith , I'm now worried that it wont cure it. It seems that running the risk of getting the switch wet can make it fail and if the battery is a couple of volts down, that can cause this fault, what happens in mid winter when batteries have to work hard.
I have got to travel a thousand miles with two dogs, so i cant afford for it to go belly up.

 

The battery volt trip point for the tranny ECU is 9 volts, at which most other electronic things in the truck won't like working (other than dim bulbs). Good voltage from alternator is 13.8 - 14.4 at idle, with everything turned on, that may drop as low as 13.2. There are so many electronic items that a great condition battery is a must. The switch can be removed, cleaned out, resealed. The drain for HVAC condensate water can be re-directed if dripping on the switch. Ground points for wire harness and tranny ECU should be clean and tight also, along with those for main battery black cable (follow it to find them). All of this is an average DIY job.

 

Check your voltage first, XYZ switches are expensive and you don't want to replace it if it not bad.
Also, if it is the XYZ switch, have them rebuild it, it is a lot cheaper then buying a replacement.

 

I've just bought my first auto disco (2000). This is now happening to my lights. I hope its not to expensive.

 

As all of these other have mentioned. It is very possible your battery is low. In my case my daughter drives only a mile to and from school and the M&S lights started to blink. So about once every week or two I throw a charger on it. Since I started that, I haven't gotten an more intermittent M&S blinking lights for over 4 month now.