November 2006
Mysterious flat battery AND No starter motor action.
I have only had my P38 Range Rover for 2 weeks when the brand new battery went flat over a period of 3 days of non-use. I thought that one of the kids had left a reading light on or something (but not so). So I fitted a spare, fully charged Optima. I got a Key Code Lockout, which is not unheard of when a battery goes very flat on the car. I put the Key Code in right first time, re-synchronised the handsets, but when I came to start the car I got nothing out of the starter motor.
The dash lights come on fine & there are no warning messages (apart from the expected Window & Sunroof Not Set). When I turn the key to engage the starter I think I can hear the starter relay click and various other clicks and whirrs (maybe fuel pump and ABS pump). I looked in the under-bonnet fuse box and everything was fine, dry and clean. I swapped around the starter relay for a couple of others. I checked that the gearbox was in Park and also tried it in Neutral. Neither do I think it is the immobiliser (which has identical symptoms) because when the passive immobilization kicks in the message centre tells you that the Engine is Disabled. And if I wait 30 seconds after unlocking I do get that message.
Of course the next step is to check to see if there are any volts reaching the starter. But I was wondering if anybody had come across this before? Never had a whiff of starter motor problems in the previous two weeks.
It was also curious that the battery was suddenly flat. I measured the current draw on the new battery with doors closed & unlocked (i.e. interior lights off & no alarm system) & engine and ancillaries off and got a reading of 0.5A which would surely flatten a battery in 3 days! What can be causing that? I have had a good read of the main Rangerovers.net website and there is nothing that jumps out at me as the obvious cause. So I will just have to pull each fuse in turn till it drops off. The first fuse I will try will be the Nokia hands-free kit (see below) wherever that is.
Plus, I have just this minute discovered there is a third problem that has raised it?s ugly head ? heater core O rings ? when I moved the car (by towing) on the sloping driveway I noticed about a small cup of coolant pour out of the RHS footwell and sure enough there are tell-tale green drips from the bottom HEVAC vent (right on to the Nokia hands-free speaker!)
Could this small leak be causing the current drain? By shorting out some underseat circuits?
Yeah, welcome to Range Rover ownership! Now, where?s the number of the local Range Rover dealer?? Read more
I've just bought Junior a very tidy Nova 1.2 for £195 with 6 weeks' tax and 12 months MoT - OK, no guarantee that it will make it to the end of the year without further cost, but it's a good start. It came from an Ebay-based trader, who'd turned a loss on it of £10, not including his time to fetch it, and the cost of Ebay's fees.
Until recently I reckoned MoT was worth £25 or so per month, but it seems it's dropped. IMHO a carb'd car is a better buy for really basic motoring, but I suspect that puts off other buyers.
Foolishly he uses the same account for his purchases as for his sales. I found the listing of the car when he bought it, spoke to the previous owner, who'd treated it as his pride and joy for six years, always using Vauxhall parts, oils etc.
HJ says "One of the better 'older' superminis. 3-door is nicest and most valuable..."
I'll keep notes on its behaviour for the period and report back Read more
Small claims court might be worth a try.
Any ideas on releasing tight glow plug (in for 189k) from head.
I have started repetitive soaking in plus gas, and thought of applying heat to the exposed end of the glow plug, and/or cold using one of the plumber kits.
(Quick 5 minute job before the pub, without using the big toolkit, I thought. Present damage so far:- the flexible drive to my "Indoor" socket set, the socket which fell off and jammed behind the alternator, the harden spilloff pipe that snapped (thank god for the spare engine), the snapped hardened breather pipe (the ones you can't get anymore)
of course the plugs are easy to get at on these old non-turbo engines, except for the one behind the diesel pipes for 3 &4. Guess which one has a resistance of 4Mohm and is stuck.......................)
One more soak in plus gas, and off to pub
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My advise is to heat around the glowplug with a gas torch (keep away from the bottom of the head near the gasket and use a soft flame)..should be hot enough when the plus gas is smoking. Hitting the top of the plug with a hammer and drift might help loosen it but the heating is usually enough. Usual safety precautions apply!
A friend wants to hire a Micra, possibly a 160SR, for an extended test drive.
Does anyone know where he could do this in SE London /Kent area?
Read more
Best to contact Nissan UK who can then point him in the right direction.
Friend anxious to replace the tyres of his 1995 BMW 320i with grippiest available. Having driven it on a wet road recently I can understand why. Any suggestions appreciated based on knowledge/experience. Cheers Read more
May well be worth considering winter tyres for this car, especially as we're coming into winter.
Doesn't need to be freezing, they're better than ordinary tyres below about 7C. Also their open tread pattern and softer compound makes them better in the wet year round.
I slightly scuffed the rear bumper of a car this morning whilst parking at a car boot sale. Knowing how annoying this can be when the offender just drives off, I waited for five minutes, then decided to leave details under the wiper. No pen or paper in my car, and in the five minutes it took to obtain them from a stall and return, the car had gone.
If the driver sees this,- sincere apologies,- please post with details of the car and time and place of the occurrence (form an orderly line, please..!) so I'll know it's a genuine claim.
P. Read more
It was me! I was actually in the car and now have a sore neck. Where there's blame there's a claim!
Apparently according to Auto Trader on the box yesterday when the French introduced wheel clamps the public didn't like it. Instead of complaiing to our beloved HJ and their Mps they simply filled the locks on the clamps with superglue, this was not just the victim but people who happened by one with superglue to hand. Clamping is eliminated I hear........what do they do with speed cameras? according to J Clarkson these were invented by a rally driver to gauge cornering speeds of his cars. Read more
What it actually means is no lpg vehicles without cut-off valves allowed in that area. Sorry about that, but it probably deters some parkers! Was it someone French who told you that? :-)
Some basic engine info:
www.carbibles.com/fuel_engine_bible.html
Of course, the section regarding torque and bhp is deeply flawed ;-) Read more
I am thinking of buying this model car from a freind as a replacement for my mothers trusty 20 year old Corolla. Can anyone give me their opinions on the running costs/reliability of this model ? thanks Read more
My wife's 2002 Corsa has been faultless from new. Obvioulsly not the same size as a Corolla. Good build quality if not the most stunning ride dynamics but I think the 1.2 engine is a little gem. Some mention here about faulty steering racks but I would guess not at 30K miles.
£80 annual service costs from my local Vauxhall dealer and no cam belt to worry about . Cheap insurance & parts costs. Some later Corsas were subject to a timing chain recall but a 2002 model falls outside this area.
Recently bought a VR6, replacing my father's old TDI. And to be honest i prefer the VR6 but only just!
My comments so far (please excuse my ignorance when it does come to cars)
The pulling power on the TDI was greater, somehow, although official figures suggest that the VR6 has more torque.
I excpected the VR6 to be very quick off the mark- well it isn't! It's quick in a perfect straight line, or downhill but does seems to be slow or certainly no quicker than the TDI on hills- you need to put your foot down to gain any decent speed... Are all cars slow on hills- even powerful ones?? 0-60 times on derbyshire country hilly lanesd seems to take 20 seconds, not 7.4 seconds!
Don't get me wrong in every way the VR6 does please, the sound is to die for, and I imagine that on a track or autobahn it'll be very quick- speeds of up to 155-160 mph..
Petrol consumption is very very good. Don''t ask me how but petrol is costing me only about £5-10 more a week more than the TDI did??
All in all, I am a petrolhead at heart, just couldnt stand that transit van noise on the TDI anymore, but it was a good car and not slow either.
Many thanks for reading. Sorry about my sentence construction, my english is not 100%, i am from frog land! Read more
Simply put a diesel has much more torque at low rpm's. Bit more work needs to be done on a VR6 but once you get there it pulls!
Browse
Hi Andy,
I did wonder about the battery charge.
While I was fiddling around using the Optima I stuck the other battery on charge. After a while I gave up tinkering and locked the car. Sure enough the Optima was flat after a couple of days. Then I put the original battery back on (having charged it overnight) and still no starter action. Windows go up and down swiftly, dash lights nice and bright, central locking pops up and down smartly, alarm siren is reassuringly deafening. Plenty of power there.
Apart from actually performing a battery power test I am reasonably convinced that the two batteries are not part of the problem.
The car went off on a low loader this afternoon to the dealer who tell me that, as I have informed them it is not urgent (since I have a couple of other cars), and since they are so booked up they cannot look at it for 9 days.