Discovery 2
1999
only 50k miles.
totally stock.

Great weekend in the New Forest, last stop National Motor Museum Beaulie.
300 miles multiple stops over 3 days.
Did experience Battery light FLASH on a couple of times, but NOT continuous.

Now to the problem.
parked up Saturday afternoon no Issues.
went to the car Wednesday remote won’t work. Unlocked manually and there’s NOTHING. Battery as a do-do. Not a glimmer.
Charge the battery overnight on “repair “ mode.
Remote now functions, as does ignition, starts runs, no apparent problems and everything functions.
BUT A BATTERY/ALTERNATOR tester indicates good battery but NO charging.

Car stood for 24 hours, battery DEAD.

Remove battery and replace.
Tester show replacement battery good condition but NO charging.

24 hours later DEAD battery.

So, what’s going on ?

The alternator may not be charging, but what about the drain ?

Not a little discharge, but absolute.

 

Alternator is your no charge issue unless there's a wiring issue in between somewhere. The failure mode for the charging issue may also be causing the battery drain.

 

A fault in the alternator is causing the drain, and not charging.

 

One point I should have noted is that when the car is running and my tester indicates NO charging, the dash Battery/charge light is OUT ?

I realise that an alternator failure will stop charging, but how could it cause such a total drain as it’s principally a coil & magnet that do not physically come into contact ?

 

As others have noted the alternators is causing the no charge condition, but in terms of the light being out this may be due to the fact that the light indicates at voltage presence but your alternator may be unable to provide the needed current for keeping the battery charged. I admit this would be odd. As far as the discharge condition goes there are a host of things that could cause a "phantom" or, what is technically called a "quiescent" voltage draw when the truck is off. I experienced this for a while and it was a bad starter of all things. There was even a TSB regarding the issue. The technique for tracking it down is to set your multimeter to read current and put it inline with your battery and fuse box (with your truck OFF!). You will get a reading indicating the total system current draw. Then, start pulling and replacing fuses 1 by 1 until the value drops significantly- then you will have found which circuit is causing the draw.

 

That is precisely the info I needed, thank you.
I was looking for continuity but my multi meter decided to go on the blink !
So new meter and I’ll start checking 👍

 

You need a meter on that puppy to see actual voltage. Sounds to me like the regulator is dying.

 

Thanks Best4x4

Could a failing regulated cause a drain on the (new) battery, enough to COMPLETELY discharge it overnight ?

 

Do you have air suspension on the rear, ie rear SLS?

 

Yes, Nashvegas I do.
why do you ask ?