I'm starting this thread early, before I have had any opportunity to do any real diagnosis.

My son was driving home to Charlotte from Wilmington, when he called me to tell me the M and S lights were flashing, and that the battery light was on. I immediately thought the alternator had failed or was failing, and hoped he might limp the rest of the way home on the charge left in the battery and with whatever power the alternator may have still been producing.

He called me an hour later to say the engine had died, and he was pulled safely off to the side of the road just 5½ miles from home. I didn't know whether or not it would work, but I decided to try charging the Rover battery by jumping it from my car, long enough to perhaps build up enough of a charge in the Rover to allow it to start and drive the short distance home.

I hooked up the jumper cables and sat for 15 minutes or so with my car revved slightly to ~2000 rpm to try to charge the Rover battery a little faster. At that point I thought it was worth trying to start the Rover, but after I disconnected the jumper cables and got in the truck I saw smoke coming out from the seat switches on the side of the console. Yikes!!!

I had the presence of mind to quickly disconnect the negative cable on the Rover battery to kill any more current from flowing. I came home to clear some space here and my son is waiting for the AAA tow truck to bring the truck here, where I hope we can maneuver it into the garage with it not running.

I've read on this and other forums about the electrical system trying to ground via the e-brake if another primary ground fails. That may be the case here, but I can't imagine what would have caused a ground to fail.

I'm going to be quite challenged for time to dive in to diagnose the problem for a while, but any thoughtful ideas about what might be the problem are welcomed. Thanks.

 

Might try fully disconnecting the failed alternator (in case that's what is grounding out). Also, it might be preferable to fully disconnect the Disco battery to charge.

With a disconnected alternator and a charged battery, then maybe try to start her in your driveway for a quick test??

 

I had an opportunity this evening to run an alternator check. The little Vector-brand battery charger I bought years ago has an alternator check feature built in.

The instructions say to first run the check with no load, i.e. with no accessories or lights on. The alternator passed the no-load test.

The instructions say to next run the alternator check with the electrical system under load, i.e. all lights and accessories on. I had the heater fan on high (but no A/C compressor), the radio on kinda loud, and the headlights on high-beam, the emergency flashers on, and even the rear fogs. The alternator failed that test.

The instructions say that if the alternator passes the no-load test but fails the under-load test "the problem could stem from a loose fan belt, an intermittent diode failure, or possibly bad connections between the battery and alternator and/or ground."

Well, I doubt it's the belt, given the tensioner setup instead of the earlier designs and that the belt is only about 7 months old. I'll double check the connections and grounds this weekend when I hope to have a little time.

The reference to ground connections may tie back to the smoke I reported coming from around the seat switches. I'll do some searching about that, but in the meantime if any of this triggers a light bulb moment for any of you please let me know. Thanks.

 

I had a battery light on for a few days without issues, then one morning I got the limp mode and barely made it home. I noticed my UG voltage was reading low and not increasing as I drove so I ended up replacing the alternator with a used one from Paul Grant.

Normally I would think to just replace the alternator but since you had some smoke in other electrical areas I would double check your primary grounds. Though it could have been the alternator causing the problem.

 

Disconnect the alternator and hook it up again to a charged battery - the battery might have grounded internally and caused the short circuit.