So this was a new one for me. My truck has been parked for about 6 weeks. I gave it some exercise yesterday. Started fine but had 3 amigos and batt light. No big shock there. Drove around the block and came back and shut down. Fiddled with stuff a bit and started up and drove again. 3 amigos gone, batt on. Drove a couple of minutes and the batt light went off. All seems normal here. Last night I ran to the store and drove the Disco. Batt light came on at startup. OK, fine, it'll go off in a few, right? Didn't go off, UG shows 10.8v where it is normally just below 14v. Hmmm, better watch this close. Leave the store and my lights are dimming and UG doesn't recognize that I started. Welp, 5 miles and I'm in the garage, fingers are now crossed. I got close and my lights are off, M&S started flashing a bit ago. C'mon baby! The last mile to the house is pitch black with no street lights and houses back off the road. Good thing I know the way. Half mile now and suddenly the lights come on and UG fires up. 13.9v. I guess the alternator kicked in finally. Here's the question: WTF with the alternator? I've never seen one do nothing then spontaneously kick in. Anyone seen this before? Thoughts? Another reason to start my LS swap.

 

@H20nSnow Check all your cables, positive, grounds , the small cable on the alternator. For my money, your alternator is dying,but also check the belt tensioner if it is going you may not have enough tension to spin the alternator.

10 volts is zero charging to the battery your disco is running off battery at that point, and it may have killed your battery

Finally this has nothing to do with disco this normal for a failing alternator, bad cables or in the old days a broken belt so no spin.

 

I just realized I didn't close the loop here.

It died completely in April. I pulled the alternator and got it tested. As I thought, the voltage regulator was toast. I tried to source a vreg but the only outlet I found that looked reputable didn't come through. I ended up with a new Bosch alternator.

 

Thanks for posting the fix

 

So, this week I was using my CXS-18, which I bought as a bare tool. Since the vecturo I bought in November (2023) came with two 18V batteries, I figured I didn't need any more. The total charge cycle times for both batteries are probably less than 10 times (or less than 5 times). After I finished, I put the battery in the charger with 1 bar showing. Later I noticed it was flashing RED. It had been too hot to charge, I thought. So I put it in again, same results. It initially flashes green before switching to RED (or perhaps amber?). So I start to collect info make a warranty claim and decided to try it one more time (several days later). THIS time it charged just fine to full, showed solid green at the end. Very odd, any ideas what could be going on here?

 

Very coincidentally I know what you’re talking about since I also use Festool tools, but just a heads up, somehow you posted this on a Land Rover forum.

Regarding the battery, yeah that just happens once in a blue moon. Not a problem to worry about. Try a different charger if it happens often and see if that helps.

 

Even though you’re making some sense of it, I still think the post is from a bot.