My LR3 went dead on me while driving today. All the lights in the dash started to come on, pretty much all the warning lights. When I turned the car off and tried to start it it was dead. Not even dome lights.

I got it jumped but the lights were still goofy, like my GPS went out. Really strange. So i purchased a batter from the AAA tow service and it fixed it all but one light.

The batter is only 3 years old (interstate with 6 year warrenty)

My son was in car last night looking for something and I noticed Iphone charger and a RCA input for iphone were maybe laying on the metal rail. Think he left a light on or maybe those phone cords shorted. Or maybe had nothing to do with it at all.

About a week ago I put in a replacement high flow air filter.

Other than those two events nothing has been changed.

When he put the new battery in the car starts and runs fine. One idiot light remains on though. Its the amber EMS warning. It sort of looks like a tiny picture of a motor.

I thought maybe it was the alternator, anyone know what this EMS light means? Could it be anything to do with Iphone cords or even the new air filter?

It seems to run fine but that light bothers me.

Anyone have an idea what that light means? Why my battery died and why the lights all went crazy while driving? I know it was from low battery but I don't know what drained it other than maybe my kid left the dome light on or something.

 

Did you test the charging system?,

If the battery dies while driving then it was not charging

I don't recall what the ems lite is

 

The AAA tow guy just did a computer check on the battery and it said it was bad. But yea it would since it was out of juice. Funny thing is the alternator warning light is not on. So either its charging fine or the warning light for alternator is not working.

That other light might just need to be reset. But I'll have to take it to a shop I suppose to make sure its ok.

 

EMS = Engine Management System. You need to have codes pulled and see what is wrong.

 

The thing that is strange is if it were the alternator why did it not give me any warning?

You would think a low charge light would have been on. The only warning I got was like 300 feet of driving just before arriving at bank. All the lights went on like it was shorting out. What was happening was the battery died while driving, and it was daytime too so no lights were on to drain it.

Then after we pull the battery I get this EMS light. So you are saying rather than have a specific gauge or light for battery charging (Like my Ford Explorer) the Landrover shows a non specific idiot light which then has to be decoded at the dealer? Nice.

 

I got on you tube and they had a video on how to check alternator charging.

I put my multimeter on the batter set for DC volts.

Car off - 12.05 volts
Car on - 13.6 volts.

The video showed 13+ volts as alternator working.

I'm not happy about my Landrover giving me zero warning of a stranded situation issue.

Lets say the battery was just getting old. I got no warning lights that the battery was not charging. Is that how they go bad? No warning?

 

My battery was fine then just died. It happens sometimes on any make.

They can pull the code for free at autozone.

I have a $20 Bluetooth code reader and a free app on my phone called torque works great. I just leave it plugged into the obd port.

 

I checked the old battery and it reads 11.1 volts. The electronics on the LR3 must operate within a very small range of voltage. Like 12 +- .2 volts.

If I were to engineer that I would make the range a bit wider and have a gauge or battery light that would turn on saying your battery voltage is 11.8 volts and will shut down at 11.2 or something.

Landrovers are suppose to be great off road cars but this is a huge fail to me. Zero warning and I get stranded.

The good news is that yellow light is off now. Everything seems normal. Maybe after the battery is pulled the computers have to reboot then takes some time to auto calibrate.

My tires were the same, when I got tires the pressure sensor lights stayed on for 50 miles till the computer recalibrated.

That Code device sounds nice, where is the plug located in the car?

I think I will get one of those and also buy a jump start battery.

I tried to jump it from someones car in the parking lot but even after 5 minutes it only had enough juice to turn on my lights. It would not turn over the motor. Probably would have taken 30 minutes. So I called tow service and they had a small jump box and it started my car instantly.

At least I was at a store and it was not cold old. But I'm thinking what if it were 20 below and i'm off road. I'm dead meat.

 

You'd be dead meat if you were a poor planner and if you went out alone. If you are going out wheelin' in those climates, you'd best get yourself a new battery before the trip....and maybe take your old one as a hot spare.

 

I have never had a vehicle shut off while driving due to a bad battery

I have driven numerous vehicles with no battery, supposed to be able to run off alt.

Only 1 time did I drive a vehicle till the batt was dead and that was my d1 like 2 years ago, alt died on way to va so I drove on the batt till it died and shut off, made it far like 30+ miles almost to town