Hi All - Off to a not so good start with my 19' Discovery HSE Lux which I recently bought. It has been having an issue w/ the battery where it was shipped to me with the battery dead a few weeks ago. Since it was jumped, it has been fine, but started to act up again with the driving terrain options blinking when it is parked in my garage, low battery warning popping up here and there which I think was causing the battery to be drained(it's currently slightly elevated on a lift in my garage so not sure if that is what is causing it). Now the battery is dead again. I tried jumping it with another car but couldn't get enough juice so will prob call LR Roadside assistance to jump it in the morning. I clearly have to take it to the service dept and get it checked out as I was planning on taking it on a road trip to Maryland later this week from NJ. Given that it is slightly elevated on my lift is there a mode that I need to switch it to, or utilize the "double lock" functionality to avoid the issue moving forward or likely another electrical issue that LR Service dept needs to check out? I can't find any appts until Thursday so I'm pretty bummed right now, beautiful, fully loaded truck but you gotta be kidding me with issues already. I just don't know if there is something that I'm doing that is wrong that would cause this to happen. I keep thinking it's due to the car being elevated on the truck when it was shipped and now on the lift but maybe there is not correlation. Any help would be much appreciated on cause, solution, or best method on next steps. Thank you in advance LR community!

 

Hi - sorry to hear of your issues. I can't see how being elevated has anything to do with it

The fact you can't jump it suggests to me that your battery may have failed. You didn't specify - did you put in a new battery? Or just keep driving with the old one it came with?

Sounds like a good start would be buying a new battery, charging it fully (they aren't always well charged when you buy them) and putting it in. Then see if you still have issues

 

Thanks. No haven’t replaced the battery yet but I think that’s the plan. I tried looking online couldn’t find any availability for delivery or pickup. LR roadside assistance is due to pickup the car tomorrow morning so I’m hoping the dealer has one in stock.

 

Do you have the center console cooler box?
I had the same issue with my 2018 HSE...kept getting the "battery low please start engine" and "charging system fault detected" warning lights and the backlights for the terrain response controls would be blinking despite the car sitting not running in the garage. Dealer had the vehicle for a few days and they determined that the cooler box had a short. They replaced the cooler box and installed a new battery and it's been fine for the past 9 months.

 

Oh shoot, yeah I do have the center cooler(my wife wanted it, complete waste of space). Could def be it. I just dropped it off so will see what they say. Thanks!

 

This sounds like a . . . battery ground stud recall has not been done, problem.

It wreaks enormous havok!

 

yeesh do you know if that is a quick fix or they prob need to order parts to get that done?

 

Replace the battery. It's not uncommon to occasionally get a dud and it will exhibit these symptoms. I work for JLR and bad cells and faulty batteries on cars fresh out of port can happen.

Important note- when you get your vehicle jump started this is temporary band aid. You must immediately put the vehicle on a slow charge and bring it back to 100% or you'll always be underwater and put a tremendous strain on the alternator and electric system.

If you still have this issue after replacing the battery you simply have a minor parasitic drain which must be tracked with formal diagnostics. However, you must replace the battery as a starting point-especially after what you've described.

Lastly, if your car sits for any length of time or you want to make sure you're topped off-I like to use battery tenders. Modern vehicles have a lot of electrics.

 

thanks for this, much appreciated insight. And thank you to everyone who pitched in with feedback.

So final prognosis from the LR service center WAS(drumroll)….bad faulty battery. They replaced it and that was that, and thank god was able to get the truck back before my road trip down to the mid Atlantic in the nick of time. It kind of boggles my mind they have so many of these battery issues. Is it because of the electronic complexity of the vehicle that causes the battery to go bad or the stock OEM battery they use just absolutely suck? You would think Land Rover, a prestige luxury brand would be using top of the line batteries. Either way, so far so good and truck runs great as of now. Fingers crossed it stays that way. Now I just gotta figure out why my google maps navigation is not pumping out any sound for directions through Apple car play 😂😂😂. Tackling one problem at a time.

 

Well, we've sold roughly 250,000 Land Rovers in the US market over the past few years. If 0.5% have a battery problem that's 1,250 cars to deal with over a small retail network which means our retailers will see plenty of bad batteries (even if there really aren't very many statistically speaking). Now add in all the problems incurred by owners such as running the batteries down and damaging them, improper jump starting and just older vehicles coming in for service- dealers see a lot of replacements. They should provide 7-10 years of service when properly cared for, but luxury vehicles put tremendous strains on them and most people do not know how to properly maintain them.

Believe it or not there's not many companies out there making automotive batteries and most of the luxury manufacturers are sourcing them from the same company as JLR. The technology is fairly primitive and straightforward, but they aren't perfect. We see the same problem rates as most companies- although some of the OEM's take additional steps to keep the batteries well charged during shipping. Not such an issue these days given the rapid turn rate in the market right now.

In summary, we're not buying poor quality batteries nor is there a company that just makes "luxury" batteries that are special. They differ in their capacities and shapes, but most of them are fairly similar in performance and quality. Besides, we have to eat certain warranty costs and waste technician time with them when they fail- which isn't something we want.

Remember- even a "cheap" battery (Walmart, generic, etc) can provide many years of dependable service when taken care of, but most luxury owners have no interest.