Thread: What happened to your D3/D4 today?

Originally Posted by Discodicky

My LR Indie friend told me the other day that his D3 did an alternator which "boiled" overheated the battery in a few klms due to over charging.
But yes, I guess you are correct, most probably fail by giving lower voltage.

I know they can kill a battery, though the fault is a dead short, rather than over charging?

The alternator and starter are on the same lead with a 400amp fuse at the positive terminal on the battery , so if the alternator shorts it kills the battery before the fuse blows, hence plenty of stories of cars stranded as once the voltage falls below I think 11.8 v the ecu shuts the car down.
From what I have read the over charging seems to be a bms fault not an alternator but that's not based on anything other than reading of peoples issues.
As for buying locally cheap, ensure it's a denso unit not a OEM copy unit.
Cheers Bulletman

Originally Posted by veebs

I know they can kill a battery, though the fault is a dead short, rather than over charging?

I just asked him, you are correct, it had a dead short.

Originally Posted by Bulletman

The alternator and starter are on the same lead with a 400amp fuse at the positive terminal on the battery , so if the alternator shorts it kills the battery before the fuse blows, hence plenty of stories of cars stranded as once the voltage falls below I think 11.8 v the ecu shuts the car down.
From what I have read the over charging seems to be a bms fault not an alternator but that's not based on anything other than reading of peoples issues.
As for buying locally cheap, ensure it's a denso unit not a OEM copy unit.
Cheers Bulletman

My LR/Indie mate pulled out his Snap-On and re-set the BMS which Battery World had done yesterday.
It now reads around 12.4 but spasmodically goes to 13.4 and 14.1
He said it may take a while to settle down.

Yes, TR Spares list the Denso.
Will watch it over the next few weeks but will most likely fit a new alternator sooner rather than later.
Am slowly doing preventative m/ance stuff before doing a longish mainland trip in first quarter of next year with the c/van.
Inlet manifolds, oil filter assy, alternator, etc are all on the list.

At 172,000 the car has run faultlessly with only normal stuff like services, pads, belts, etc been done, although I did replace the gear selector/rotator/ and brake light switch pre-failure.

Originally Posted by Discodicky

My LR/Indie mate pulled out his Snap-On and re-set the BMS which Battery World had done yesterday.
It now reads around 12.4 but spasmodically goes to 13.4 and 14.1
He said it may take a while to settle down.
Will watch it over the next few weeks but will most likely fit a new alternator sooner rather than later.

My second alternator failed in a disappointing 90k km, after the first died at ~130k km, so wouldn't completely dismiss the idea the alternator is weak.

That said, the car will on occasion 'test' the battery, by deliberately running it down (the 12.4v you see) to a lower state of charge, then recharging back up again. This lets it establish the battery health, and drives charging profile decisions.

Swapped the Hankook AT’s with the Maxxis 980‘s.

Had a good run of about 65k kms and would have bought Hankook’s again but got a better price on the Maxxis which also have the LT rating. A Central Australia trip away for the school holidays with a van prompted the replacement, otherwise I might of squeezed another 5k kms out of them.

Also kept one of the old tyres as a 6th spare, just in case.

D3 went into my indie on Thursday to have pinion and axle seals replaced on the front diff, I had thought the LCA would be knackered and they are but uppers also shagged which does not surprise me.
Once ball joint almost shot and RHS CV boot almost split through and near the axle was a split.

Getting him to check the rack & lower steering column while he has it pulled apart. Rear arms and knuckle bushes will need to be done but that will be in a couple of months once I have saved some more $$$.
ouch.

Wont get it back till Wednesday so I am getting used to the push bike again to get milk and bread! 6.6km round trip to the shop, I need the exercise anyway.

Like Peter - from Thursday as life has been busy. Mine had the AMK compressor serviced. We've had the vehicle almost 7 years and it hasn't missed a beat but with nearly 1000km of rough dirt approaching thought it best to play safe. DLR noted that there was no powder at all so glad we got it done before any happened.

Also a new clock spring so now I'm pressing all the right buttons.