Diary of a first time Range Rover owner

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speedyyellow said:
Right, got my new chain wrench this morning and with it the accumulator swap was a 10 minute job. I now only get the pump running every 3 or 4 brake applications. I must admit I was hoping this would have a bigger effect on the braking and make the pedal more responsive but apart from the pump running less I can't feel a difference.

Today I also attempted to replace my heater matrix o rings. This did not go to plan though. I started stripping things down following the shortcut method from rangerovers.net. When it came to the point of drilling/cutting an access hole I went my own way, and trusty dremel in hand went at it! The result was this:

Photo%2001-06-2013%2016%2057%2039.jpg


The pipes are readily accessible and the screw is reachable with a normal length screwdriver, so I was very happy with that. The problem was the screw would not budge, and in my attempts to remove it I rounded it off a bit as well. After contemplating drilling it out and breaking something in the process so it wouldn't go back together I chickened out and put it all back together. :(

It wasn't a total waste of time though as access to the pipes will be much quicker/easier next time, and while I had it all apart I also did this:
Photo%2001-06-2013%2015%2050%2015.jpg

Photo%2001-06-2013%2016%2001%2019.jpg

Photo%2001-06-2013%2019%2018%2039.jpg


Thanks for the heads up odysseus, they do go well with my chrome door handles :D
Click to expand...

Trouble is if you drill it you might just be able to unscrew it out of its bracket if not your buggerd as I don't think the bracket slips off the pipe

As for brakes time for a bleed of old fluid might have water in it now replenish fluid with a bleed including booster and Reservoir bleed screws and you should be alright
 
A couple of weeks ago I was posting about replacing my key fob batteries and only then getting the "keyfob battery low" message. After getting back from holiday that message has gone and not come back so I think that's ok for now.

The other issue I was having was the tailgate doesn't open reliably. When dropping the cats off & picking them up it refused to open, yet it was fine when loading and unloading our luggage. I also noticed yesterday that the doors locked and unlocked on a short trip to the station to collect the wife. While waiting for her train to arrive I had a play with the door lock buttons and discovered that operating the passenger lock always activated all the door locks but doing the same on the drivers door it didn't always operate the other doors. I could lock the passenger door and all locks would operate, then unlock the driver door and only it would unlock. Locking it again and unlocking the passenger one caused all the doors to open. This doesn't sound right to me, so I'm assuming there's an issue with the driver door lock not activating the central locking properly. All the door locks go up and down as expected when locking/unlocking with the fob. I understand the drivers door lock also controls the tailgate lock so I hope that fixing the driver door lock will sort out that issue as well.

Any suggestions on what could be wrong? Everything I can find about failed door locks is the motors burning out, but mine must be good as they work most of the time. Could it just be a loose connection in the door somewhere? If I buy a new lock mechanism will I need a new key as well?
 
Another day and another issue. Last night I drove to collect the wife from the station as usual, her train was slightly delayed so I turned the engine off and sat with radio & side lights on for 5 mins tops. Went to start the car and it won't crank. I get a click and nothing like the battery is flat, but no messages on the display & everything is lit up and running. I tried my booster pack and that had no effect, so then I started wondering about the RF receiver. I'm sure I've read about cars failing to start due to interference, and they've moved the minicab office at the station so it was right next to where I was parked. Could that be it? I disconnected the blue lead from the RF unit but it made no difference, finally I put it in neutral and rolled it down the hill so it was 100 metres or so away from the cab office and it still wouldn't crank. Is the RF receiver a red herring? Have I just got a duff battery?
 
speedyyellow said:
Another day and another issue. Last night I drove to collect the wife from the station as usual, her train was slightly delayed so I turned the engine off and sat with radio & side lights on for 5 mins tops. Went to start the car and it won't crank. I get a click and nothing like the battery is flat, but no messages on the display & everything is lit up and running. I tried my booster pack and that had no effect, so then I started wondering about the RF receiver. I'm sure I've read about cars failing to start due to interference, and they've moved the minicab office at the station so it was right next to where I was parked. Could that be it? I disconnected the blue lead from the RF unit but it made no difference, finally I put it in neutral and rolled it down the hill so it was 100 metres or so away from the cab office and it still wouldn't crank. Is the RF receiver a red herring? Have I just got a duff battery?
Click to expand...
If you're not getting any "engine disabled" messages it won't be your receiver. If you can hear it click, it's either your starter or your battey. Hook it up to a healthy car battery (boosters are usually very weak if tot fairly new and freshly charged) and try again. They do need a strong battery, these cars. On mine it turned out to be a duff starter. I took it apart, cleaned it and put it back in - all good. Pay special attention to the connector on the solenoid, poor contact here will cause the symptoms yopu describe.
 
speedyyellow said:
Another day and another issue. Last night I drove to collect the wife from the station as usual, her train was slightly delayed so I turned the engine off and sat with radio & side lights on for 5 mins tops. Went to start the car and it won't crank. I get a click and nothing like the battery is flat, but no messages on the display & everything is lit up and running. I tried my booster pack and that had no effect, so then I started wondering about the RF receiver. I'm sure I've read about cars failing to start due to interference, and they've moved the minicab office at the station so it was right next to where I was parked. Could that be it? I disconnected the blue lead from the RF unit but it made no difference, finally I put it in neutral and rolled it down the hill so it was 100 metres or so away from the cab office and it still wouldn't crank. Is the RF receiver a red herring? Have I just got a duff battery?
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Is it your battery how would we know check it with a meter for starters charge it up and get a test done on it :rolleyes:
 
Sorry for not having had chance to do all that between it happening at 11pm last night and me leaving for work at 7am this morning, very slack of me I know. Given that I won't be back at the vehicle until 7pm tonight I thought I might get some suggestions in the meantime.

I've not had any starting issues before so I'm surprised that the battery could go from turning it over fine to not at all in such a short space of time. I'll pick a new one up from Halfords tonight after work.
 
speedyyellow said:
Sorry for not having had chance to do all that between it happening at 11pm last night and me leaving for work at 7am this morning, very slack of me I know. Given that I won't be back at the vehicle until 7pm tonight I thought I might get some suggestions in the meantime.

I've not had any starting issues before so I'm surprised that the battery could go from turning it over fine to not at all in such a short space of time. I'll pick a new one up from Halfords tonight after work.
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Might be a good idea to get the battery load tested to check whether its really duff before you splash out. Or load test it yourself if you have a ammeter. Plenty of how to's on't internet.
 
Having seen the picture of the one on halfords website I'm pretty sure my current one is a fair bit smaller. I'm thinking at some point someone has put a cheap and underpowered one in there rather than a full fat one.

I'm very tempted to get a new battery & RF receiver just to eliminate them from the possible causes.
 
The battery doesn't fit. Well it fits in the hole, but I can't connect it as the negative terminal is about an inch further away than the bastard wire will reach. ####ing ****!
 
Heh, thanks :)

Having got over last nights frustrations with the new battery I took the old one home and put it on charge (the stupid car is still stuck at the train station car park costing £3.20 a day in parking). The existing battery looks to be way too small though:
IMG_0009.jpg


This is the new one compared to the old one showing the lead not being long enough:
IMG_0002.jpg

IMG_0003.jpg


I'll hopefully use the freshly charged existing battery to get the car home tonight (and check the alternator is giving out a good charge), and then hit Halfords at the weekend to get the correct battery sorted out.
 
speedyyellow said:
Heh, thanks :)

Having got over last nights frustrations with the new battery I took the old one home and put it on charge (the stupid car is still stuck at the train station car park costing £3.20 a day in parking). The existing battery looks to be way too small though:
IMG_0009.jpg


This is the new one compared to the old one showing the lead not being long enough:
IMG_0002.jpg

IMG_0003.jpg


I'll hopefully use the freshly charged existing battery to get the car home tonight (and check the alternator is giving out a good charge), and then hit Halfords at the weekend to get the correct battery sorted out.
Click to expand...

You need to get a battery with terminals on the other side
 
speedyyellow said:
Having seen the picture of the one on halfords website I'm pretty sure my current one is a fair bit smaller. I'm thinking at some point someone has put a cheap and underpowered one in there rather than a full fat one.

I'm very tempted to get a new battery & RF receiver just to eliminate them from the possible causes.
Click to expand...
This is the battery you need I bought one myself more than adequate :)
http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/...&productId=264229&categoryId=165762&langId=-1
 
Well I used the halfords battery selector thing and bought what it told me. Dunno if the chap in store picked the wrong one up or if their system is wrong though.

Anyway, more fun and this time in the rain. Fitted my charged existing battery and after ****ing about to trigger the alarm so I could EKA unlock it with my Nanocom I'm right back where I was at 11pm on Tuesday. :(

Off home again now to pickup the multimeter I forgot to grab when I picked up the battery. Is there anything else I should be looking at? When you turn the key I get a relay click but no attempt to turn it over.
 
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