Discovery 3 Scared of the dark!
Discussion
Hi
Looking for some advice before a spend a fortune at the garage. I had my battery changed at Halfords and since then my Discovery 3 hates the night time. She is fine during the day, no issues at all. However at night, the auto gear box doesn’t work and I have to switch to manual, all external lights go on and stay on including break lights, and the suspension lowers, the dash goes like a Christmas tree. I have taken her back to Halfords and they say it’s the correct battery, but it is like it doesn’t have enough juice in it to run the car when I switch the lights on. I have never had any problems with the car and we have done 170 k together, with no issues. Everyone I talk to says it’s time for her to be traded in as she is hitting big issue age.
As you can tell I know nothing about cars.
Looking for some advice before a spend a fortune at the garage. I had my battery changed at Halfords and since then my Discovery 3 hates the night time. She is fine during the day, no issues at all. However at night, the auto gear box doesn’t work and I have to switch to manual, all external lights go on and stay on including break lights, and the suspension lowers, the dash goes like a Christmas tree. I have taken her back to Halfords and they say it’s the correct battery, but it is like it doesn’t have enough juice in it to run the car when I switch the lights on. I have never had any problems with the car and we have done 170 k together, with no issues. Everyone I talk to says it’s time for her to be traded in as she is hitting big issue age.
As you can tell I know nothing about cars.
Sounds like they have not tightened one of the battery terminals up properly. That or the battery has a fault.
Disco 3 is very sensitive to under voltage. Once it drops a little, the suspension panic mode plus other bits start happening. As it's a new battery, I'll put my money on a loose battery terminal.
Disco 3 is very sensitive to under voltage. Once it drops a little, the suspension panic mode plus other bits start happening. As it's a new battery, I'll put my money on a loose battery terminal.
The old battery was knackered, I had it tested and it wasn’t holding a charge. I will go and tighten things now and see what’s she is like. I was going to say see what she is like tonight lol, but all I have to do is switch the lights on day or night 😂😂😂
Will let you know how i get on.
Will let you know how i get on.
gmaz said:
Sounds like it needs an auto electrician specialist to check that your battery is being charged OK, and that the lights are not using excessive current due to some fault.
I'd recommend a decent LR Specialist before an Auto Electrician. D3s are complicated beasts and plugging it to the best diagnostics might be a good place to start. Gearbox might also be a place to look. As others have said they are sensitive to low voltage.
Also, at 170k, I bet the statement of 'no issues' is not true at all
Rachel white said:
Hello, no normal lights. I think I will have to get an auto electrician, and they sound expensive.
Where are you based? I have a spare set of headlights that could be swapped over to test if you are anywhere near me.
Also try the website https://www.disco3.co.uk/forum/ for more specific help.
There are several independent specialists and other very experienced owners who are usually very helpful who post on there.
Strange though it sounds, not all batteries are the same when it comes to Land Rovers, even if it is the right amperage rating your battery is highly likely to be the issue.
The various ECUs controlling everything from lights to gearbox to suspension on the RR Sport & Discovery 3 are very sensitive, when I was running a specialist LR workshop in Dubai we found several aftermarket batteries causing all kinds of electrical faults with them. Faced with similar issues as yours first thing we would do is we to swop the 'new' battery out for a LR original battery and more often than not the issues disappeared.
I can't explain the engineering behind this, but I've seen it enough times to always recommend an original LR battery on later model Land Rovers even though they may cost 2 or 3 times as much as an aftermarket one...
The various ECUs controlling everything from lights to gearbox to suspension on the RR Sport & Discovery 3 are very sensitive, when I was running a specialist LR workshop in Dubai we found several aftermarket batteries causing all kinds of electrical faults with them. Faced with similar issues as yours first thing we would do is we to swop the 'new' battery out for a LR original battery and more often than not the issues disappeared.
I can't explain the engineering behind this, but I've seen it enough times to always recommend an original LR battery on later model Land Rovers even though they may cost 2 or 3 times as much as an aftermarket one...
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