Disco 2 weird electrics...

Good Evening

I bought a cheap D2 a few months ago because it was cheap... now starting to regret it. I noticed some flashing indicators one night and thought nothing of it, little did I know that it was this disco repeatedly locking its self... the locking started out about once every 20 minutes and is now every 5-10 seconds. I have unplugged the transponder for the key fob to no avail although the terminals did have surface rust from leaky sunroofs. I also did unplug the BCU which was fairly wet inside, took it apart and dried it out by the log burner. But the problem still remains. When I bought it it wouldn't lock/unlock on the key fob. Has anyone experienced this before ?

Many thanks

George

Nothing weird about Disco 2 electrics (he said, tongue in cheek) just as long as you can keep them dry.
Unfortunately, as with almost all printed circuit boards, once they do get wet verdigree, a green coloured copper corrosion can start to form which can do untold damage to those circuit boards even after they've been dried out.
If the board can be caught early, before the verdigree really takes a hold then they can be cleaned and rescued with care, but in your case, I'd say a replacement BCU might be in order, as well as some other units, depending on whether or not they have suffered water damage too, but a thorough check out with a compatible code reader will be needed to find out exactly what is going on.

brian47 said:

Nothing weird about Disco 2 electrics (he said, tongue in cheek) just as long as you can keep them dry.
Unfortunately, as with almost all printed circuit boards, once they do get wet verdigree, a green coloured copper corrosion can start to form which can do untold damage to those circuit boards even after they've been dried out.
If the board can be caught early, before the verdigree really takes a hold then they can be cleaned and rescued with care, but in your case, I'd say a replacement BCU might be in order, as well as some other units, depending on whether or not they have suffered water damage too, but a thorough check out with a compatible code reader will be needed to find out exactly what is going on.

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Thanks for the reply, Brian. The only other symptom i forgot to mention was the wipers front and rear stay on intermittent when engine is running. I think these are also controlled via BCU. I shall get a reader on it and see what she says but when I unplugged one of the BCU plugs there was a lovely shower of water fall out of it so I expect it has been damaged.

Thanks

George

I've had another look at your first post, George. The RF receiver unit in the roof space isn't a particularly clever unit, it's just a basic radio receiver and has nothing to do with the actual coding of the security system; that's all done in, you've guessed it, the BCU.
It might be a good idea to make sure that the receiver unit is dry and the connections are clean and secure, especially the earth bolt.
Yes, some of the the timer circuits and relays for the wipers are on the BCU, the rest are on the I.D.M. It might also be worth checking for water damage on the I.D.M. or the Intelligent Driver Module which resides on the back of the passenger compartment fuse board. When water damage is suspected, that's usually the first place where it becomes evident.
When you do dry out the BCU, make sure that you dry the internals of the plugs too. Check the inside of the BCU for any traces of verdigree as you dry the board. It's quite a complex board so I wouldn't advise that you start poking around on it.

Unfortunately the bcu nor the idm store fault codes so they can't self diagnose internal faults so while you will need a Discovery dedicated reader to program a replacement bcu as they are not plug and play, it will not help you identify the bcu as being faulty, only when you have several random faults (like you have), in functions controlled by bcu is it obvious that it is culprit.
If you do buy a used one make sure that it is unlocked before you get it, as it is impossible to unlock a locked one away from original vehicle and you will be unable to reprogram a locked one so it will not ever work.

Farmergeorge said:

Good Evening

I bought a cheap D2 a few months ago because it was cheap... now starting to regret it. I noticed some flashing indicators one night and thought nothing of it, little did I know that it was this disco repeatedly locking its self... the locking started out about once every 20 minutes and is now every 5-10 seconds. I have unplugged the transponder for the key fob to no avail although the terminals did have surface rust from leaky sunroofs. I also did unplug the BCU which was fairly wet inside, took it apart and dried it out by the log burner. But the problem still remains. When I bought it it wouldn't lock/unlock on the key fob. Has anyone experienced this before ?

Many thanks

George

Click to expand...

What's the rest of the D2 like ? .... for example, the chassis - they are known to rot ... and I wouldn't like to see you spend money sorting the electrical gremlins out for the chassis to the next "issue" you have ... a search on here will show you some of the worst scenarios

If the IDM is suffering from water exposure , ( and that needs to be checked ) ... then the source of this water need finding too...

D2's are a fine vehicle with their foibles sorted - if you bought it cheap, then so much the better.

Good Luck

Thanks all. I shall have a look at IDM later today but I suspect that the BCU will be the culprit.

Disco1BFG, I'll be honest, it does want a rear quarter chassis but the rest has just surface rust which will clean up easily. I factored this in when I bought it and offered a price which was take it or leave it nd to my surprise they took it!

Water source was the sunroof which had a blocked drain, it currently has the headliner out but the water was running down the headliner, behind the left A pillar trim and down the wiring loom. Having bought it as something to tinker with in the evenings, it's not the end of the world to me what I end up doing with it, but I know I can sell the engine for what I paid for the whole vehicle !

I had a disco 2 previously which blew the flywheel up (I do a lot of towing) which was a lovely motor and I'm hoping to have this one as a daily at some point... just a question of when

Farmergeorge said:

Thanks all. I shall have a look at IDM later today but I suspect that the BCU will be the culprit.

Disco1BFG, I'll be honest, it does want a rear quarter chassis but the rest has just surface rust which will clean up easily. I factored this in when I bought it and offered a price which was take it or leave it nd to my surprise they took it!

Water source was the sunroof which had a blocked drain, it currently has the headliner out but the water was running down the headliner, behind the left A pillar trim and down the wiring loom. Having bought it as something to tinker with in the evenings, it's not the end of the world to me what I end up doing with it, but I know I can sell the engine for what I paid for the whole vehicle !

I had a disco 2 previously which blew the flywheel up (I do a lot of towing) which was a lovely motor and I'm hoping to have this one as a daily at some point... just a question of when

Click to expand...

Cool - Glad you're on top of the issues. I've seen so many scrapped due the corrosion, and it is such a shame as they are a damn fine vehicle..

In terms of the BCU, there is a chemical, which is called "DeoxIT" which will restore oxidation damage on pcb contacts and such - I don't know if it would help here .... ???

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