Disco 2 and flat batteries

[Bushie]

OK this is for a mate of mine.

He has a may 03 Disco td5 that continually seems to suffer from flat
battery problems. Basically he is being told that this is a normal
landrover problem (the electrical system "leaks").

Now owning a defender I know about oil leaks but electrical?

Given that this should be a warrenty issue but it doesnt seem to be
progressing very far he is keen to do some investigation himself.

Firstly - is this a known problem with this model (continual flat
battery)

if it is what is the offending system/component, if its not and
assuming battery and alternator are OK where does he start to look?

Thanks in advance

Bushie

[lewy110]

My dad had one of the first disco 2's and he had the same problem. I think they replaced about 3 batteries and 2 alternators and the problem still remained.

He sold it and bought a nissan, traitor!!

[Phoenix]

Sounds like a hard thing to trace.

My fiancee had the same problem in her lazer, and it was only by chance that we found it.

She was rear ended near my house, and had extensive repairs to the rear of the vehicle. So I pulled off the rear panel to see if the demister and rear light (that didn't work anymore) was wired in correctly.

THe first thing that I found was a spare wire ............. what the?????

In the end it turned out that a live wire had been connected to the demister instead of the light switch for the light, so the demistar was always drawing power. Fixed the wires, and no more problems style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif

How is this relavent? it only takes the smallest earth or piece of wire wrong or faulty switch to drain a battery, my advice, take a good multimeter to everything that you can (harder in a dico than a 82 model lazer I know), and with the key off, see if you can find a cabe running power to something that should be off.

[defute]

Bushie,

no, it's not a known conern with 03MY Discoverys to have flat batterys. A new, FULLY charged battery on a Series II Discovery should last at least 3-4 weeks if left untouched.

Does the vehicle have any aftermarket accessorys fitted? If these are wired incorrectly, they will cause a current drain!!

Has it been confirmed that there is a current draw from the electrical system when the vehicle is left for any period of time? This can be checked by carrying out a quiescent current drain test on the electrical system.

An 03MY Discocovery will drain 20mA-30mA from the battery after the Body Computer has gone to sleep after approx 15 mins of being left untouched.

If a current draw any higher than this is seen, the life span of the battery will be reduced.

I hope this helps.

[Slunnie]

I've not heard of this problem at all, and sadly I spend a lot of time on the disco2 Aussie and global Yahoo groups

[Phoenix]

If it isn't common as slunnie suggests, then it is probably a loose wire or a bad earth.

I'd recomend an auto electrician have a look at things if you aren't so confident with a multimeter.

[bazzle]

Over what period of time does his battery run down?
Has he tried another battery? as they somtimes get internal resistive shorts.

bazzle 8)

[duff]

Sorry I cant offer any tips as all the discos I know dont flatten batteries, but I would encourage your friend to not take crap from the dealer, GO in to the dealer and tell him this is a defect and will be fixed under warranty( dont ask them if something is wrong or not,,, Unfortunately to many times they will abuse the trust we place in them,, And either lie or dont know better.
Dont take " its normal" line from the dealer, The Landrover is a car and if all other cars dont flatten batteries or go thru rear door locks or leak at the windows ETC ETC ,,, then landrovers shouldnt either. WE ALL have to remind the dealer that these things arent "landrover things" :evil: These are defects and have to be fixed.....now, You should not waste time getting the run around by the dealer either.....The first time they advise you this or that, and you disagree,, Phone the customer service number at Landrover and ask to have your dissatisfaction listed on the computer. You will be surprised that they are equally as annoyed at shonky/incompetant dealers driving customers away to the jap rivals as what you are. by registering your complaints you will have the problem identified, so when you do inevitably get the run around by the dealer, and then ring LR they will take you seriously(in that it is an outstanding issue not a new complaint) and act quickly (unfortunately I have found this out several times already) :roll: :? :roll:

[Bushie]

Thanks for the responses guys,

I put this up on a few forums and it seems that its not a common fault so I will let him know and see where it takes him from here.


Bushie

[shack]

Thanks for the responses guys,

I put this up on a few forums and it seems that its not a common fault so I will let him know and see where it takes him from here.


BushieWhat time period are we talking? They are definitely known to drain the battery when parked, but it does take a while, I would suggest the 3 weeks mentioned above would be about right, I think it's mostly to do with the abs modulator, they go on squeaking to themselves forever.

The first thing to do would be to ascertain how much power is being drawn when the vehicle is off, so grab a multi meter and go for it...

The most common problem would be the rectifier (diode pack) but usually if its that, it would be dead overnight.

Cheers
James

[Pedro_The_Swift]

Thanks for the help James,,

I'm sure Bushie appreciates it,, even up there..... [wink11][smilebigeye]

[shack]

Thanks for the help James,,

I'm sure Bushie appreciates it,, even up there..... [wink11][smilebigeye]I'm really sorry...

I really thought this popped up in my current feed... Whoops, dunno what happened

[PhilipA]

There was a problem on here a while ago that if the windscreen leaked, the internal fuse box could get wet and this could lead to current leakage in the fusebox. A new internal fusebox fixed the problem, along with fixing the leak of course.
Regards PhilipA