Ill share some of my experience and hopefully it helps.

I have a 05 in which I replaced the battery about 2 years ago. Went with an interstate. I put the battery on the tender every 6 months or so now after about 2 years to keep her fresh and let the car do the "electric start thingy" when you flick over the key quickly.

A few months ago I noticed the quick flip method started to have issues. Put the battery on the tender and all is well. I thought. Again this week it seemed to be the same so I precautionary used the battery tender. All was good until yesterday when the vehicle seemed to have a hard time starting. I charged the battery last night and now this morning the rig will not turn over at all.

In my case im 90% sure this is a bad starter. I could be wrong but both the keys are good and it seemed to be showing me the signs of failure. 95k miles on the rig.

Ill check the battery terminals and the ground cable this week while replacing the starter and report back.

 

It's been a painful year of problems with Boris the LR3. But I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the starter problem has finally been put to bed.

After changing the Battery - nope. worked for a few weeks before failing to start.
Starter motor - nope. worked for a week before failing.
Gear Selector switch - nope.

Had it in the shop (again) last week and they found the crank sensor was falling apart and corroded. Luckily the car was in a 'I am not going to start phase' and the instant they fitted the new crank sensor... Voila! Problem gone and we have had a 100% start first time ratio since then.

It's been two weeks so far....

Crank Sensor gets my vote!

Will report back in a few more weeks...

 

Hey there,

Would you be able to please send me pics of the starter contacts that you were referring to below? I bought a new battery on my '05 LR3 and have a hard time starting but usually after 3 attempts it works however, I am afraid of it going out totally but I am thinking this is a good way to start identify the roof of that problem - I hope.

Thanks!

 

Knowing what I know now, I'd replace starter. Since you have to remove it anyway for repair or replacement. Purchase a new or rebuilt unit and install it. If you really want to attempt to refresh the contacts on the solenoid, send me a message and try to dig up the pictures for you.

 

I agree !

 

I recently experienced the same starting problems on my 2006 LR3. It would only start about 20% of the time. It would not turnover. You would only hear a single click sound. You could eventually get it started but could never depend on it. It has a brand new Interstate battery and all the connections were clean. I installed a rebuilt starter from Napa last night and it works perfect. It was not too difficult of a job as long as you have small hands. The information on this forum was a great help. It took about 3 hours total with the help of a friend. I used a floor jack. I removed two heat shields which allowed decent access to the starter from both the underside and side. Of the two bolts to be removed the top was the hardest but not as bad as I have read on other posts. I was a little concerned when I first saw the tight access to the starter but it actually was fairly easy to remove and install. Thanks again for all who have posted their suggestions. It has helped me several times.

 

We appreciate your feed back re the installation of the starter motor. I have a question regarding the number of apparent cables connecting to the starter motor stud. The wiring diagram infers two, one being from the alternator and the other from the battery.

I presume that it seemed like there was only one cable however as I presume the two cables are joined together to form one prior to the starter stud. As such, I wondered what you noted. The wiring pdf is below.
http://www.disco3.co.uk/gallery/albu...ng_diagram.pdf

Also, I found a couple of jpg's of the starter solenoid contacts.

 

You are correct. The wire splits off into a Y just prior to the starter mount. There was plenty of excess wire to work with. I had the old starter pulled out then I was able to disconnect the wire at the starter stud. The same cannot be said about the other wire which plugs into the plastic clip on top. There is very little excess wire to work with. This must be un-clipped prior to pulling the starter out. You can not see it very well. You just have to feel it. I also had an issue with the plastic receptor on the new starter. It is very fragile. It was either broken during shipping or I cracked it while moving it around. I was able to supper glue the cracked portion back together, which is the first time I have gotten super glue to bond something other than my fingers.

 

I enjoyed your comment about the super glue however.

I appreciated your comments re the cables joining together . I brought the question up as that sort of alternator feed to the battery is for the most part unique. To my way of thinking, the joining of the two cables at the starter can potentially lead to odd measurements at the battery end.

If for some reason, the starter is acting up, power from the alternator can feed into the starter without being see by the battery. There is also no easy way to measure alternator output. Usually one can put a clamp meter over the B+ cable from the alternator before it gets to the battery and see what alternator output is. With the alternator output cable joining the starter cable at the starter, measuring alternator output can be difficult as all is buried deep down.

 

Hey guys. My 2007 LR3 is now having starting issues but a bit different from what some of you have experienced. I'll get in the car in the morning after it's been in the garage all night (temps lately have been in the 40's). I'll unlock the car fine, insert the key in the ignition and turn the key. When I get to position II everything shuts down on me. ALL power is lost and the car is dead. I can't even activate the locks. This has happened 3 times now. Always first thing in the morning after the car had been driving fine all day. By the time I've opened the hood and poked around in the fuse box, roughly 3-4 minutes, the power returns and the car starts up fine.

Any ideas?