Hi all,

Yesterday morning I was heading 'darn sarf' on a day trip at around 6:30am. I was travelling on the M54 in Shropshire when it all started to go bad.

I was cruising along and I noticed the Red Battery Light lit up It stayed on for a little while and went off again for a time, but then time it came on again and stayed on!
Following this, the Sat Nav screen went off, then the ACC disengaged and then the rest of the dashboard warning lights lit up like a Christmas Tree and the Info Display systematically informed that various features and functions were no longer available!!!!!

I retreated to the hard shoulder applied the Electronic Park Brake and engaged Park. I stuck on my hazards and got the hell out of there! By the time I got to the other side of the safety barrier the hazards and lights had faded out.

I called for recovery and was told someone would be there in about an hour. It was -4(ish) and I was freezing. I remembered I had some nice warm walking boots, winter overtrousers and 2 pairs of gloves in the boot. I thought i'd see if there was enough power to unlock the boot, but there wasn't.
I thought I'd get in to the boot by folding down the rear seats, but the back doors were locked. I tried to open them from the front, but they wouldn't open. I found out later that I had to manually unlock and then open the door handle (wasn't like that in my previous cars). I didn't fancy messing about too long next to a live carriageway, so I went back to the safe side of the barrier.

Interestingly (to me) every 30 minutes(ish) the Highways Agency called to see if:
a) I was ok.
b) Had I been safely removed from the motorway.
It seemed nice at the time that they kept checking up on me.

After around 50 minutes from my call a low loader turned and the driver asked me if I wanted to sit in the nice warm cab whilst he loaded my car. I didn't need asking twice!!!

After about 5 minutes the recovery guy got back in the cab and asked if I knew how to get the gearbox out of Park and disengage the EPB with no power! I vaguley remembered reading something somewhere, but i couldn't remember what it was.
The recovery guy called HQ for help and disappeared so that he could be talked through it. After 5 or so minutes he came back and said he needed to get in to the boot for the Park Brake release tool and with no power that wasn't happening! So a van with a boost pack was sent.
When the van arrived they applied the boost pack and everything lit up long enough for them to disengage everything a load my car on the low loader.

I was offloaded at the local LR dealer (my choice). I went in to the Service Reception to inform the dealer that my "Range Rover" (didn't mention 'Sport' at this point) had broken down was offloaded in to their car park and ask if they could take a look at it. I was 1st asked if 'I had an appointment?!?'
*ing appointment?!?
Realising how stupid that sounded it quickly turned in to 'we are too busy, you've no chance of it being looked at'!
I took a deep breath whilst trying to remain calm and sat down to explain to the service guy that everything had lit up and then the power died. The following conversation took place:
Service guy: Is it a Sport?
Me: Yes.
Service guy: TDV8 by any chance?!
Me: Yeeesssss!
Service guy: Most probably the alternator, they are on back order.
Me:

The service lady took my details and asked me to send her the non-LR warranty company details. Which I did when I got trundled off home.

I called today. They confirmed it is the alternator and the rest of the electrics are fine. However... whatever happened it's killed the battery too! This isn't covered by my warranty!

There's some things to sort with the warranty company which I hope will be resolved on Monday.

From my description it was reasonable for the service guy to assume it was the alternator, but he identified it was a TDV8 sport without me offering the info. Have any other TDV8 owners had alternator trouble or failure recently

Sorry for the long tale of woe. It's been a sort of therapy writing it up.

Cheers,

Mark

Great story mate. Thoroughly enjoyable reading.... or it wouldve been if my battery light wasnt on permanently in my RRS. Came on last night. Made it home without using lights etc. Made it to work this morning (only about 5 miles) again without using anything electrical. Just got off the phone to LR Assist and awaiting engineer.

Question.. Is the battery covered in the Landrover warranty???? Anyone please....

Oh.. Yes it's a 2008 TDV8

The voltage regulator could have failed in your alternator causing the battery to overcharge and become damaged.

Landrover just been and alternator is on its way out. Still charging but less than it should. Geezer from LR was spot on. No drama. Car going in today and Freelander auto waiting for me. Cant say fairer than that.

Linko, perhaps the service guy only checked refurbished (exchange) alternator stock to save you money; new are available (YLE500430). Call him up & tell him to do his job properly.
If you do get new, ask for credit on old or keep to repair - it's usually the diodes that are defunct.

Cheers DrLex, they managed to source a Service Unit for me in the end. The Service guy had said 'they were on back order' off the cuff without checking when I was there originally.

The cost came to around £750! for the Alternator, New Battery, Coolant and labour! My warranty covers a good chunk of that, but doesn't pay for full labour rate or the battery.

If you have a TDV6 apparently it takes 1.5 hours to repair. If you have a TDV8 however, it takes 3.8 hours!

She's back now and just in time for the lovely snowy weather!

Hope yours is sorted too Mick!

Cheers,

Mark

Getting "done" as we speak. Pick up Monday. TH White are usually spot on so don't anticipate any problems. What I need to say though is that they gave me a new Freelander while they've got mine. What a cracking car it is. Got all the gear you get in the rrs and goes like f*ck. Not got the comfort obv or the looks but a great wee 4x4.

my alternator went, the recovery guy got us home on the saturday so i took the battery off and charged it over the weekend, on the monday put the batterry back on and all seemed fine, no battrery light! took it down to dealership who had it for 3 days and couldn't find anything wrong with it. so i collected the car drove about 5 miles and the light came on again went straight back with the light still on, they then changed the alternator been ok since then.

Hi all

Guess what happened today to my tdv8 sport?

The wife went to pick up our son from a sleep-over,parked up (car still ticking over) when inside for a blether.
When she came out the car had cut out!.

She phoned for the recovery,guy arrived and eventualy got it started and off she went merrily down the road(luckily a narrow farm track).

Here is where it gets exciting,about a minute later the sport cuts out (on the move!), no brakes and now treering like the QE2,she manages to get parked up and home safely.

To cut a reasonably long story short it looks like the Sport is off the road for at least a fortnight (Half day christmas eve plus three days in between).

That is of course they can get an alternator which has rightly been pointed out are on back order

Anyway merry christmas one and all Kiel

Oh my God, at least your family is ok!

Happened to me once but in different circumstances. At the time I had the car for just a month or so and I was driving down a motorway in Switzerland. I put my hand on the vents to the right of the SatNav screen and accidentally pressed down the start button and apparently kept on pressing on it without realising it. It was night and suddenly the engine switched off, lights went out etc etc. Lasted about 2-3 secs and somehow, completely subconsciously I pressed the start button and thankfully the car started! That was a close call indeed.

Hopefully you will get your problems sorted out ASAP. I feel your pain  Vadim A.

Ok. Car went in Thursday. Came out on Monday with a new alternator. Don't know what the back order issue is but didn't affect me. Top marks again TH White

Hi, and a happy new year to all.

I thought I would drop in a quick update about my battery/alternator woes. I picked the Sport up on the 10th and is now running fine (including the heated seats).
The service guy as much as admitted that the original alternators were no more than adaquate and with the addition of the hidious weather we have been having had overloaded the alternator.
The good news is the replacement units have a higher output(he assures me!)

It is funny however, despite being without the Sport for the best part of three weeks both my good lady and myself had to admit that there is not another car we would change it for.

anyway cheers for Now

Kiel Kiel