Hey Folks, would really appreciate any thoughts on the following: 2013 LR4 HSE, we have had less than a year. Yesterday, we pulled up to gas station and after getting gas could not get the LR4 to start/crank. Heard a click (solenoid?) then the car went into a bizarre electrical show of various lights coming on and off, various displays flashing then sort of culminated into the low battery warning. Got a a jump (didn't work). Had to call AAA, they diagnosed battery (said it was reading "good"), but swapped it out anyway just to rule it out. Still didn't start. Had to tow it back to house.
Ok, so now I have just fully charged the battery, AND used the other car to jump and it still wouldn't crank/start. Here is the also something worth noting: the battery (on my voltmeter) shows full (12.8v), yet when I hook up the car's terminals the voltage quickly falls down to around 9.4v. (Is this normal for Landys? It can't be right? I know its not the case for all the other cars I have had and worked on.) I am thinking it is a drain somewhere, but am wondering what would drain it that much to the point where it wouldn't even start with a charged battery AND a jump at same time. Any thoughts again, would be really appreciated. thnx, Phil

 

Odd. I wonder if the alternator shorted internally. Im not sure on the LR4, but with an LR3 you can disconnect the alternator at the main fuse (next to the battery) yet still power the car itself. The downside is the starter is also on the positive lead for the alternator, so it gets killed. But you can effecting rule out the starter and alternator causing the issue.

If the alternator/starter are not the issue the next step would be to pull fuses. Go through them all and see if pulled one causes a voltage change. Normally you expect a fuse to blow with that much voltage drop, but things happens.

 

Thanks for the response! I actually did some more troubleshooting last night and what I found was if I pulled the SM relay/fuse (the big square one closest to the front) the voltage would go back to regular battery voltage (12.5). Then, if I put the SM relay/fuse back in, it would stay at 12.5, not drop back down to 9.4. The only time the voltage now drops down to 9.4v is if I try to start/crank it. (then it stays at 9.4v.) I swapped the SM relay with another just to rule that out, and it still didn't start. I am going to take the battery in to get load checked at NAPA (just to 100% rule it out), then, if battery is "good", then proceed with troubleshooting/replacing the starter. Again, thnx in advance for the responses.

 

Okay! Problem solved. Hopefully someone else who is not familiar (like me) with Land Rovers can benefit from this. Here goes:

Short version, new battery from NAPA worked. Long version below:
So, last night I said in my earlier post that I trouble shot whatever was dropping my voltage; and what I figured was that I had to "reset" (basically just pull the SM fuse/relay and then put back in 10-20 seconds later) for it to keep from dropping my voltage down to 9.4v. So, it makes sense that the new battery that the AAA repairman put in didn't work. He never "reset" the SM relay (nor did I tell him to because I didn't know about it.) Also, my battery didn't test out "good" at the NAPA store; the guy said it was pulling about 100 amps......... so, you can all make up your own conclusions on that one.

I guess I am left with the question though why the SM relay needs to be reset? Shouldn't this be an automatic feature (or at least reset once battery gets disconnected)? If I am missing something real obvious please let me know; I won't be offended. I am totally new to Land Rovers and have never had to reset anything before when swapping out batteries or when jumping. Thanks again for everyone here who has responded or was about to; I look forward to becoming a member of this community.