My new D3

[Jim.]

Hi all,

I picked my D3 S turbo deisel on Friday, I already love it, its a fantastic car to drive. As my one eyed toyota mate said as we were pulling out of the carpark and into the flow of traffic "it goes alright mate" thats a huge compliment from a bloke that dosent really like pommy cars.
I took it off road today. The D3 comfortably climbing up a few steep rocky hills, in low range 1, it broke traction a few times but found its feet and made it to the top each time. Coming down using Decent Assist was noisy but good.
On the way home I stopped at the local carwash and washed it, and came home very happy with the new car, however as I was driving up my street a Amber EMS fault warning light came on, which only allowed me to limp home (at about 10kph) that took the gloss off of my morning. I'm glad I was by myself.

Has anyone else experienced this, and what advice can you share with me.

Regards to all Jim.

[Bushwanderer]

Hi Jim, and welcome,
Did you, by any chance, spray water around in the engine bay?

Best Wishes,
Peter

[Jim.]

Hi all,

Pete it was a drive through carwash, funnily enough the light came on within minutes of going through it,

Thanks Jim

[Bushwanderer]

Hi Jim,
I think that therein lies your problem.

Behind the Box that houses the starting battery is a metal box that contains an ecu. Unfortunately, this box is not sealed, allowing water to penetrate into the box & the connectors.

Ideally, remove & open the box & thoroughly dry the innards. Also once the connectors are disconnected, dry them as much as you can.

When finished, reassemble and water-proof the box and the connectors.

With luck, this will solve your probs.

Best of Luck,
Peter

[Jim.]

Hi all,

Pete, good on ya mate, thanks for that...............I'll definately be sealing it up. Is there any other places that might need the same treatment?

Regards to all Jim.

[ozscott]

Hi Jim,
I think that therein lies your problem.

Behind the Box that houses the starting battery is a metal box that contains an ecu. Unfortunately, this box is not sealed, allowing water to penetrate into the box & the connectors.

Ideally, remove & open the box & thoroughly dry the innards. Also once the connectors are disconnected, dry them as much as you can.

When finished, reassemble and water-proof the box and the connectors.

With luck, this will solve your probs.

Best of Luck,
Peter

Good to know there is a fix Peter, but that is crazy stuff...there is no way that water from a car wash should be worse than a deep creek crossing. For that matter a car wash should not cause problems even if it penetrated more than a creek crossing.

Cheers

[Jim.]

Hi all,

Called the dealer I bought the D3 from, and explained what happened (by the way Monday morning warning light gone) he asked me to bring it in to run diagnostic tool over it........................the bottom line is it showed no fault code at all. I asked what if that happened 500km from home? Answer switch it off for 10 minutes and try to restart, this should reset the electricals and you're away.

Regards to all Jim,

[WhiteD3]

Good to know there is a fix Peter, but that is crazy stuff...there is no way that water from a car wash should be worse than a deep creek crossing. For that matter a car wash should not cause problems even if it penetrated more than a creek crossing.

Cheers

I've had a similar issue within the first few weeks of ownership where after a car wash (Car Lovers using the pressure hose) the radio and instruments were dead. After some drying out and a "reboot" (disconnecting the battery, shorting the leads together) all was good and has never repeated.

[ozscott]

I've had a similar issue within the first few weeks of ownership where after a car wash (Car Lovers using the pressure hose) the radio and instruments were dead. After some drying out and a "reboot" (disconnecting the battery, shorting the leads together) all was good and has never repeated.

Its pretty funny for a vehicle coming from one of the wettest places around. Perhaps the LR testing program should add carwashes to their schedule...

Cheers

[Ashes]

Jim, turning off and back on usually resets faults like this. Seems this is a quite common D3 feature. Mine will do it occassionaly, turn it off, back on, light stays on but full range of gears. After a couple of restarts over the day, the warning light goes out.