Immobiliser Light: or is it?

[Strop]

Hi, Just got home and saw what I believe is Immobiliser light flashing for first time ever and I am usually pretty observant. Light is red, located just below middle of tacho and flashing at what I would call a normal pace.

Been having battery problems and a bit of googling has got me seeking clarification as to if it is also a battery indicator.

Have traxide system installed with yellow optima. Also brand new Varta Battery - 2 weeks old. Traxide system disconnected from cabling into car interior - only link to starting battery. Traxide system has remote in cab with flashing led’s.

Checked both batteries on Wednesday with multimeter - 12.6v. Car locked and left. Arrived home Sunday afternoon/evening and parked next to D4 and went across to check Traxide lights. 1 green - 4 red.. 1 green/5 red on Wednesday. At same time saw flashing red light on Tacho / no idea what it is for.

Got multimeter out - Varta 12.14v, Optima 12.34v

So can anyone tell me what may be happening.

What does the red light show (can’t find it in manual)? Why would a battery drop 5 volts in 4 days just sitting?

Getting a service tomorrow so after some ideas. Thanks.

[101RRS]

It simply tells you that the immobilizer is armed.

[DieselLSE]

From what I understand from your post, you are conflating two separate issues. Both of which are perfectly normal. The immobilizer light is well documented in your Owners Manual and the Workshop Manual and is behaving as it should.
The Traxide light is telling you that, whatever mode it is in, both batteries are between 10.6v and 13.1v so all is normal.
You are concerned that your main battery dropped 5v over four days. It didn't. It dropped .5v which is perfectly normal.
Unless I've misread your post, all is normal and there's nothing to worry about. Unless you're a Melbourne supporter!

[Strop]

In my google searches I found a thread that said the immobiliser light had 2 purposes - immobiliser on and battery state. Just confirmed that immobiliser only. Immobiliser light is not shown in my owners manual at all, but that’s ok, know confirmed it has single purpose.

Now next issue.

Missed the full stop for voltage lost. Understand only half volt, but 12.6v is 80-100% charged. 12.1% is 50-60% that is a lot of loss in 4 days sitting, nothing on, no doors open closed etc. I would have expected almost no change in charge. Checked the voltages again this morning and still 12.14 (starting battery) and 12.34 (optima) so perhaps they just settled over last 4 days.

Thank you.

[Tombie]

When you initially measured it likely had a surface charge on the battery. Glad to see it has settled.

Running a Traxide in shared mode will see batteries go to 12v before disconnecting. Do you have any items to draw on your auxiliary battery?

One of the best things you can do to keep modern vehicles (all makes) happy and extend battery life - is regular charging from an external charger.

Make up a cable to plug into the 12S plug, it will make life easier!

[Strop]

I disconnected the cable from the Traxide system that powers everything in the car. So the only power consumption is from the immobiliser led and the Traxide leds. At least all I can see.

Yes charging cable being made.

[LRD414]

The Traxide isolator itself does consume power. I can't remember the figure but Tim did quote it once on here a while back.
Some people have made up a switch in the Traxide earth wire to turn it off when the vehicle is left unused for multiple days.

Scott

[DiscoJeffster]

I disconnected the cable from the Traxide system that powers everything in the car. So the only power consumption is from the immobiliser led and the Traxide leds. At least all I can see.

Yes charging cable being made.

It’s a little more than the LED. The ECU that managed the LED for security is always active, else how could the alarm work? The car’s various ECUs wake from time to time to do their thing (suspension ECU for example is about every six hours and resets the vehicle’s level), then as mentioned, the traxide unit is performing s voltage determination to know when to isolate which takes power. There is a world of ecu activity with up to 20 or more ECUs dotted around the car. Think about what needs resetting when the battery is removed and you have some idea of the various ECUs that need constant power to maintain state and configuration.

This is why LR recommend AGM cranking batteries as they don’t suffer long term damage if their voltage goes quite low, unlike a flooded cell battery.