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RR '96 4 litre SE. A "refer to dealer" alert on the a/c panel takes the form of a book with a ! next to it. This comes on occasionally, sometimes immediately but more often well into a trip. On each occasion there is nothing discernably wrong with temperature control or the ability to increase/decrease it. A rogue sensor maybe? Anyone else had this problem? Only the dealer is likely to charge one arm, one leg just for looking.
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Oh dear, where do I start with Range Rover climate control??
They are notorious for sensor failure, but this usually shuts the whole thing down, They are also notorious for climate panel internal faults and software crashes. There have been about 20 modifications to the hard and software, and climate panels seem to be forever on back order from the factory, which is never a good sign.
You are best off going to a dealer or specialist that has the LR diagnostic tool, they can then run through all sensors and check for abnormalities. Some times it is something minor like a relay working the blower fan on one side, other times it's a new control panel. If they don't have the tool, then they'll be chasing shadows forever and a day. It's not often that I recommend dealers, but in this case they are well versed in diagnosing A/C problems, and should find the fault quickly, but you may not like the cost to repair! Most dealers will simply swap the panel with a known good spare one before even plugging in the tool, then go from there. Panels aren't too expensive though at about £400 ish.
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Go to www.rangie.com and read the article under Aircon submited by Davd Sparkes. That takes you through the tests that you can do yourself which will check out the following:
- air compressor and chilled air output
- in car temp sensor
- solar gain sensor
- both blower motors
- distribution flap motors
- recirc flap motors
- blend flaps motors
If you discover one of the above is apparently defective and
you plan to see if you can correct it then I would definitely
buy a copy of the Rangerover workshop manual (about £66, ie
equivalent to an hours labour charge at a main dealer!) and,if you really want to get into things also buy the Electrical
trouble shooting manual which is about the same price.
Generally I would say its definitely worth the money to go to
a Landrover main dealer because only they have TESTBOOK which
can interogate and perform the diagnostics on the system
electronically. Meanwhile, in order to prevent possible damage to the system, switch the Aircon
off when driving.
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"Most dealers will simply swap the panel with a known good spare one before even plugging in the tool, then go from there"
We do the same with ECU's....makes our lives (and the customers) much easier
MG-Rover Questions? Click on www.mg-rover.org
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HJ, my '96 4.0 SE is on it's second engine, you may remember I e-mailed you with some of the saga. Long story cut short - I wrote to the MD insisting that this vehicle should not be giving up fully LR serviced engines at 50k, warranty or no warranty. I also questioned the wisdom of my paying for top-dollar servicing etc. if nobody would help with a premature engine failure. There have been loads of other problems (like this one with the air con) but the cracked bore liners were responsible, in hindsight, for two or three over-heating episodes. The result was (eventually) a heavily discounted reconditioned engine that so far (replaced in Jan) is OK. I would mention though, that neither performance nor fuel consumption is is as good as the previous unit. Mixed cycle driving was getting me 18 mpg before and now it's down to 15. I really like the vehicle (I don't know what it is but you either really like them or you don't) and I can only assume that the loyalty this seems to breed is unique. I can't think of another vehicle that I would still own after the problems I've had! The dealer, Testers, were always polite sympathetic and helpful but goodness, what would LR have sold worldwide if only they got the lamentable quality resolved?
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Here's a piece from www.rpiv8.com, rover v8 specialists.
4.0 & 4.6 (New shape)Suffer a similar but normally less dramatic problem, although these engines are much stronger, "The Same" Air/ fuel ratio problem will arise with low octane fuels, you will not normally however suffer cracked blocks, but you will cause the Liner to shift from its seat or cause sticky valve guides (partial seizure) and the solution is much the same as the 3.9 & 4.2 above, an ECU re chip will sort it out and more Gems ECU info
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