Hi,

This issue is making me crazy, and I’d appreciate your help guys!

my 2018 discovery started acting weird lately, and these are some of the things happened:
- all electronics shuts off and on sometimes after driving around 100m, errors everywhere, and i have to stop (can’t even put it in P). Then when i try to turn it back on, nothing works at all, only thr taillights on tailgate!

- when turning the car on, it feels like it disconnects itself, i try once, twice, then turns on. Sometimes after driving, things starts to act weird, the steering gets heavy when turning, and lights around the feet starts dimming, like the car struggling with electricity.


so what i did:
- changed the battery to the original one.
- checked both previous battery and alternator and all are good.
- checked fuses, nothing.
- checked relays, nothing, but i removed the cigarette lighter relay because i felt its hot although I’ve never used it.
- made sure the + and - terminals are will secured.


even after all of that, it still happened again, but fewer than before.

my suspicion:
Maybe an issue with grounding?
when the car stoped turning on today, I touched this grounding point (coming from the battery negative terminal to the body) and the lights turned on!





Can it be what causing this issue? Although it was very secured, couldn’t even unbolt it!

any thoughts?



Update: Solved
I should’ve updated this earlier, but thanks to schwendelton the issue went away, and everything works well for months now.

the solution:
bridge the two ground studs, it will fix the battery grounding issue, because the stud that is currently connected to the battery seems like it’s not discharging properly.
-

 

Yes. Definitely a grounding issue. Terminals can become corroded. And if they have a poor connection it can spark and that creates a carbon deposit that makes the connection worse

Disconnect battery. Disconnect that grounding point (seems to be the issue given what you describe). Check the terminal and the connector are clean and free of grime, deposits etc. maybe lightly sand them

Reconnect and tighten firmly. Check for any other loose grounding points and do same. Then clean terminals and reconnect battery

I seem to remember there is a specific battery grounding issue on some early Discoveries. Look around on the forum here for which specific location. Couple of people had that issue. Maybe the one that you found

Good luck!

 

I really appreciate your response.

I’ll try what you’ve suggested and update the post 👍🏼

 

Have you had the battery ground recall done?

 

Yeah I had a similar issue, 2020 Discovery 5. The battery ground recall was the issue. Land Rover Roadside had the vehicle towed 200 miles to the dealership, delivered back to me in one day. The battery ground bolt was faulty. They replaced the battery as part of the recall work. Was nice to see LR step up and get it right.

 

unfortunately there's no recall in my area yet!
however, i replaced the ground cable with another one and it kinda fixed it!

until couple of days it happened again, but less worse than how it used to act, and not as often.

I guess based on RugbyOregon’s comment I’ll need to replace the bolt itself, it makes sense to me, I’ll try that.

 

I’ve changed the battery ground cable last month and it worked well, unfortunately the issue happened again but very minor compared to earlier.

I believe it’s actually from battery ground bolt as you said!

 

I recently had similar issues (2018 Disco5 HSE TD6). Odd warnings that the battery was low which I'd fix with a trickle charge (I don't drive everyday). Then when the engine would stop at a light the startup would cycle various modules and I'd get warnings about stability control or terrain response not being available, or as the problem progressed the dash would reboot. I replaced the battery even though it tested as a healthy battery. Finally and thanks to this thread and forum I messed around with the ground stud and that fixed it. I had planned to drill a new hole and reground with a 6m screw, but noticed another ground stud about a foot back in the same area as the battery. I picked up a black battery cable and have bridged the two ground studs which has seemed to be a good solution and I haven't experienced any of the odd electrical issues.

 

Attached is what happened to me all of a sudden, after washing the car by hand. Weird. Changed the battery and it fixed it but I think that is just a bandaid.

 

Having similar issues. The dealership built a new battery ground stud, after another dealer did the recall, but it lasted only a few days then the car died, requiring another trip back to the dealer. Can you point out where the other stud is? I might be trying this fix soon.