Hi all, New to forum.

I purchased a 58 plate RRS TDV8 40k on the clock last week, had it for a week now and I have a starting problems.

When I collected the car from the dealer, the sales guy came in and said the battery is flat and they said they jump started it and that they would pay for a new battery if there was a problem starting it.

Intermittent starting problem with both keys so it’s not them,

When it fires up the starter is turning over nice and quick which leads me to think the battery is OK

When you turn the ignition you here the relay click in and nothing, if you turn back to position 2 on the key then try to start it works fine. if you turn the key to start and it does not start hold it in the starting position and wait Its started after about 10 seconds on two occasions the other 20 times its happened you have to go back to position 2 on the key and then retry and it starts.

it always starts on the second go. if I then try and turn it off and back on again say 20 times the starting issue does not happen. but the last time i tried that last nigh I got a transmission fault on the screen !!


I have read a few post on here and other sites USA etc and this is what some have said.

1) I am trying to start the car to quickly put the key in turn to position 2 put your seatbelt on then try and start it.

2) Bad Earth somewhere on the car no-one can definitely say were ? Door was one, Battery earth was the other, engine another

3) Starter motor gone US

Reading posts on sites some people have had battery, starter, solenoid ecu changed and still have the problem !

The dealer I got it from is a two hour drive away from me and is not a Landrover dealer but does have Landrover dealers in there company.

any help would be great.

Cheers

Steve

Landy Past History
1971 88"
1971 109"
1999 110
2004 TDV6 Land rover

Mine has done it once or twice since having it (18 months) and both times I was too fast with the igniition... like it was imobilized

 RRS gone
Audi SQ5...Gone Audi Q7 S-Line 240 3.0TDI Gone
Audi A6 Allroad Sport 270 3.0TDI

very odd, as i tend to start my car to quickly and its never happened to me, infact if its even slighty warm, i will start the car like a petrol, and it always fires up first time  07,TDV8,Black, Black Heated leather all round, Rear Entertainment with Headpones & Remote, TV, DVD, Pure Dab Digital Radio, Sidesteps, Adaptive Headlights, sunroof, now working fuel burning heater )))

My alternator did spit the dummy a fortnight ago mind you  RRS gone
Audi SQ5...Gone Audi Q7 S-Line 240 3.0TDI Gone
Audi A6 Allroad Sport 270 3.0TDI

Hi Steve

Have you had the battery tested and checked its connections for tightness?

If both are OK then then my money is on the starter motor solenoid. I had two starters replaced under warranty with similar symptoms. The first one lasted 3years and 30K, its replacement 6 months. Sometimes they started with no problem, other times just a click, typical of corroded contacts in a solenoid.

LR modified the starter motor breathing pipework so it was probably moisture which was causing the corrosion.

The gearbox warning lamp is a typical sign of a battery with low voltage and may have been because starting and stopping the engine 20 times in rapid succession had drained it a fair bit.

thanks to all,

Bob yes battery tested ok and connections to battery tight. It happened twice next to my mate who is a mechanic and he said solenoid straight off when it happed the first time, so I continued to see if it did it again and he said na its totally random it won’t do it again for a while next turn of the key it didn’t start lol,

Phones the dealer yesterday 3 times sales guy I purchased it of busy waited for him to call me back all day finally got a call back at 6pm ! he is calling one of their land rover dealers today to speak to one of the technicians to see if they know what it could be.

When I get this sorted I will post the fix for me.

Cheers

Over the weekend I fixed the sliding seat problem (thanks to the pdf on this site ) I had all the doors open for about 30 min so the interior lights were on (I know should have turned them off ) went to move the seat back into position and it moved very slow so tried to start the car and I just got clicking. Jump started it from my wife’s car and then took it down to my mates garage to get the Battery re-tested the printout states 12.22V start capacity 63%.

The garage is less than 2 miles away from my house, it sounds like the Battery seems to fall off a cliff (good charge then with a little un charged use does not have enough to start the car) but the report seems to say the battery is ok !

Any opinions welcome (except for me leaving the interior lights on )

Cheers

Steve

Battery doesn't sound that good TBH. Have you tried a meter across it whilst it's idling to see what the alternator is doing? 2012 SDV6 - it's missing a couple of cylinders
2008 TDV8 - it was a labour of love and is much missed

Steve,
I have had my 58 plate TDV8 since Feb 2012 and mine does this quite often. I have tried to analyse what is happening, I am pretty sure what is happening, is that the starter motor is getting beaten the compression that is right at the max on one cylinder, try to start and the starter motor can't roll over the top dead centre, by the time you turn off the ignition off and turn it back on again, the compression has leaked away enough to let the starter roll round another 90 degrees before the next compression is due and hence it then starts. so as long as you turn it off quickly if it is not cranking over, turn it back on, it should not cause a problem.
Good Luck.

all the best
Big Martin..

checked the battery with a meter while the car was running and there is a charge going to it. its a bit high but the mechanic said that could be due to the fact the battery is low and its pushing more power to it to get it fully charged faster.

Company I got the car off is going down the route of chaging the battery first.

cheers. Landy Past History
1971 88"
1971 109"
1999 110
2004 TDV6 Land rover

Make sure the battery fitted (and the one that replaces it) are the correct size/capacity. Mine had one that was too small - I found this out when it died at the start of the winter. The diesels use a bigger battery than the petrols. Some people use larger sized batteries to give themselves some spare capacity but I'd be mindful of warranty companies using that as an excuse to avoid sorting other electrical issues such as the alternator. I put a LR battery in mine rather than go 3rd party or oversized.

The TDV8 is known for alternator problems anyway. Mine was replaced under warranty earlier this year. I would suggest that if your alternator is the original one, factor in needing to replace it sometime soon.

If you've checked the charging and it has been suggested that it's charging high becuase the battery is low, this might also indicate a problem with the alternator's charging circuit. Not sure how one would tell though.

As the RRS is notoriously temperamental with regards to the battery's condition, I might be tempted to say that the issues with the starting might be related to the battery/alternator. I wonder which is easier to change; the alternator or the starter motor? Anyone know? 2012 SDV6 - it's missing a couple of cylinders
2008 TDV8 - it was a labour of love and is much missed

^ +1

My starter motor spins up way faster than on my old TDV6 so I'd be suprised if it was not up to the job.

def sounds like a worn battery/failing alternator issue RRS gone
Audi SQ5...Gone Audi Q7 S-Line 240 3.0TDI Gone
Audi A6 Allroad Sport 270 3.0TDI

RRSTDV8 - what battery have you got in yours mine is a Landrover 90Ah 950 Amps I guess that is the standard one from Landrover. Landy Past History
1971 88"
1971 109"
1999 110
2004 TDV6 Land rover

That sounds right from memory. 2012 SDV6 - it's missing a couple of cylinders
2008 TDV8 - it was a labour of love and is much missed

New Varta Silver Battery put on the car on Friday buy the battery supplier first turn of the key and click !! , so wasn’t the battery then !

From the beginning of last week I have also been getting HDC fault and the special programs turn off it says the suspension is lowering but it’s not and there is a transmission fault this can happen at any time 1 min into a journey or 1 hour into the journey, turn the car off and back on again and you get transmission fault the car starts ok and all the programs work ok.

Going back to the starting problem if I put my foot on the brake turn the key it goes click keep the key turned and then put the car into drive then put go to neutral as it goes into neutral the car turns over and starts !

Put my mates Snap on diag system onto the car on Thursday night and I went through the menu options looking at the codes this is what came up

Engine Management
U0416 Invalid Data Received from Vehicle Dynamics control module

Airbag
B1A00 Control Module
U0122 Lost communication with Vehicle Dynamics control module
U0155 Lost communication with Instrument panel Cluster (IPC) Control Module

Anti Lock Brake
C1A96 Brake Lamp Switch circuit

Transmission
P0826 up and down shift switch circuit
U0155 Lost communication with Instrument panel Cluster (IPC) Control Module
P0500 Vehicle speed sensor A malfunction
U0416 Invalid Data Received from Vehicle Dynamics control module

Parking Brake
U3FF0 Invalid Diagnostic trouble code
C1A00 Control Module
U2002 Switch General Electrical Failure
U0155 Lost communication with Instrument panel Cluster (IPC) Control Module

Ride Level Control Module
U0416 Invalid Data Received from Vehicle Dynamics control module
U0401 Invalid data received from ECM/PCM
U0126 Lost communication with steering angle sensor

Steering angle sensor module
C0051 steering wheel position sensor
U0300 Internal Control Module Software Incomparability

I have these codes but can’t remember what I was looking at the time

U0402 Invalid data received from transmission control module
U0416 invalid data received from vehicle dynamics control module
U0421 Invalid data received from ride level control module

There was one item left to do which was the steering column, when I when into it and selected the codes option I got the following errors on the dash screen of the car
Brake error
Engine error
Steering error
Hand brake error
HDC fault
The list went on and on I came out and reset snap on diag system and turned the car off and on and when back into the steering column codes and again got the same errors on the car but the snap on box lost communications with the car. !

I know that most of these will be down to the battery going flat or the battery being not so good but I wonder if anyone out there knows is the starting problem and HDC problem is in the above list any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Steve Landy Past History
1971 88"
1971 109"
1999 110
2004 TDV6 Land rover