Cold weather - help

I have 2000 Land Rover Discovery and am running into a few problems.

It got down to about -43ºC here on Monday. Car started fine (with a little hesitation, but started.) Halfway home, all the lights on the dash came on, and the whole car stopped. Refused to start again.

Got Rover towed home, to find a dead battery (and a frozen shut hood.) Charged the battery tonight, gave it a go. Nothing. Hooked up to another car and Rover kicked over, only to stay running for about 10 seconds before the same thing happened (car dies, all lights go on.)

Proceeded to try to jump it off the other car, only to have it sputter to life and die, never staying on for more than few seconds.

There is a sound of something trying to turn over, even when the key is off and out of the ignition. Gave up trying when there was a smell of burned plastic coming from the engine.

I am wondering if it is the result of the cold weather (is this what would happen if the fuel line froze and I just need to get him somewhere warm to thaw a bit) or a sign of something much worse.

If anyone can offer up some suggestions, I'd appreciate it. I'm at my wits end with this car.

-43??? Where the hell are you?

Must be up near Yorkshire or summat?

no we only had it down to -40 today

I am in the land of igloos and moose. Also known as Canada (Edmonton, AB to be specific.)

It warmed up to a balmy -22ºC today. At the lack of options, I ran to work on Wednesday in -32ºC and it was 10.5k. Training pays off some days!

We had a nasty cold snap come through dropping temps down in the -40º range, and even worse with wind chill. Not pleasant.

groov2485 said:

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There is a sound of something trying to turn over, even when the key is off and out of the ignition. Gave up trying when there was a smell of burned plastic coming from the engine.

Click to expand...

Something must be bypassing the ignition switch and, probably, causing a massive short circuit. Auto electrician job???

The burning smell could be the starter cable getting a bit hot/relay burning out - the starting current would be dramatically increased in the cold weather... Its possible there is a damaged relay somewhere, which could be welded ON, hence something running with the key out...

After reading some other posts, I turned the ignition on and pumped the gas 5 times and definitely heard the fuel pump working. No grinding or weird noises, more like a low groan that would go on for a few seconds then off.

I've noticed that ALL the cables have had problems in the weather from seizing up. Today it warmed up to -15ºC and everything seems a bit...looser...Less wrenching to get the hood open so I am wondering if maybe the starter just forced itself into the on position and stayed there from being very cold.

I am hoping the smoke that I saw was just from the heat of the starter cable that you mentioned. We were trying for over 45 minutes to get it running, so that might be where that came from.

Right now, waiting on the battery to charge again, and going to give it a go in the "warmer" weather.

I also put a magnetic block heater on the car to help thaw a bit more (though the oil I have in is winterized oil so hopefully that won't be a problem.) Under the car putting the block heater on, I did notice some fluid actually being, well, fluid. So here's hoping that things are melting.

I'm thinking that it is not a short somewhere simply because the battery did stay up for quite a period of time (when not trying to start the car.) It didn't die right away and the interior lights and dials still worked. I could be wrong here as I am not that smart when it comes to vehicles.