'95 V8 Disco - sometimes wont start

Can anyone suggest why? My '95 V8 is not used regularly but battery regularly charged - as such it has always been reliable and starts first time, even after a long time standing

Today I took it out, started first time, after 15 minutes or so I stopped, turned off engine - tried to start 5 minutes after and engine wouldnt turn - ignition lights all OK but no starter turning.

Thought it may be low battery but after leaving it for around 10 minutes I tried it again - it started!!

Drove it short distance, stopped it and it started again - tried that once more and you guessed it, wouldnt turn over. Tried several times, no go. left it around 5 to 10 minutes and started

Conceerned aboutusing it now - help!!

Engine not cranking is one of the symptoms of an iffy immobiliser 'spider' if you have one fitted, other than that look for a problem with the starter switch, the the wiring and connections motor it's self, plus the earth connections.

Thanks for the advice, i have checked all connections, if it happens again its probably the dreaded spider

Anyone reading this who has had the immobiliser deactivated or short circuited? - cars not worth much

one way round it could be to wire starter up to a button instead of starting off the key but i would get the starter checked first its probably been on since new

lrjohn said:

Can anyone suggest why? My '95 V8 is not used regularly but battery regularly charged - as such it has always been reliable and starts first time, even after a long time standing

Today I took it out, started first time, after 15 minutes or so I stopped, turned off engine - tried to start 5 minutes after and engine wouldnt turn - ignition lights all OK but no starter turning.

Thought it may be low battery but after leaving it for around 10 minutes I tried it again - it started!!

Drove it short distance, stopped it and it started again - tried that once more and you guessed it, wouldnt turn over. Tried several times, no go. left it around 5 to 10 minutes and started

Conceerned aboutusing it now - help!!

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My v8 used to do the same thing, intermittent non-starting.
Have you checked the earth strap behind the coil mounting on the front panel?
Clean that up and make sure you have a decent earth.

Which fob have you got? If it is the 2 button you've got a "spider", 1 button fob no "spider"

Check your alternator, I just had a similar issue with not starting after driving some distance then stopping, on trying to restart all ignition lights come on but no starter, after leaving for an hour suddenly it started. This happened again and the both times it happened had been during heavy rain, so I thought water was getting into starter solenoid, but after checking battery and only seeing 12.1v I realised there wasn't enough juice, then after jump starting it I measured the charge from alternator at tickover and was only getting 12.5v, revved upto 2000rpm I got 13.9v, so I've got it booked in at autoelecs to get alternator sorted. The coincedence of heavy rain was driving with lights, windscreen wipers on through stop start traffic which flattened the battery, just wanted to share my recent fun with you as I didn't believe it was the alternator to begin with and its a quick check

Thanks for the responses, weekend job list growing!!