L322 L322 Battery strangeness

Evening all, got a bit of battery oddness on my 2006 L322 4.2V8 supercharged Range Rover and would be grateful for any thoughts.

Going back 2 years, the alternator failed, but failed short circuit so killed the battery. New alternator, new battery - all well. Until the end of last year.

Then, every now and then, I’d come out to the car in the morning and it would only unlock the front doors with the central locking fob. I’d then drive to work and the steering would be really heavy! It’s about 12 miles to work, it would get there fine and, in the evening there would be no problem - all four doors would unlock, steering nice and light!

This went on for a while and, at the service in April, the garage mentioned the battery could do with a charge - they said its voltage was low but that it was delivering plenty of current for starting fine. I charged it up and this would seemingly fix it for a month or so but it would still do its ‘two door unlock and heavy steering’ thing some days. Also, oddly, it seemed to be worse after a long journey, rather than this helping to charge up the battery! I was starting to think that my battery was dying after only 18 months, so I sent some rude thoughts in Halfords’ direction and thought I probably ought to buy a new one.

Now we get to two weeks ago and after being away on holiday for ten days, the car was dead when I got home. No problem - that promised new battery was purchased and all was well.

Until today - four days of no use and the car wouldn’t unlock at all on the fob. However, I unlock with the key, silence the alarm, turn the key and it fires happily into life! Off I then go to the garage with my wife to drop her car off - steering really heavy. Turn off and on again to come home - steering fine again!

I’ve charged the battery with my CITEK charger and it took all day to go from two to seven LEDs. Have I really bought another duff battery? Is it not being charged properly? I’m an electronic engineer by trade but even I’m struggling with the concept of a battery that gives all the symptoms of being unhealthy or close to flat, but will happily start the engine without any problem!

Any ideas?

Which model ctek do you have? It shouldn't really stay on 2 leds very long

You need to check for a parasitic current draw.
I'm not sure how or why it'd affect the steering as it's a hydraulic system....
What sort of journey length are you doing? I found with my L322 that the battery would be gradually depleted with my short commute journeys, it was markedly improved by having a decent solar panel to 'top-up' the battery whilst in the car park.

I've just put mine on charge, it's convenient to use the 13 pin trailer socket. Done several very short trips today so don't want it sitting in a low state of charge overnight

Although a low volt battery can generally start the car it may be too low to power some of the ECUs stopping them booting correctly.

What battery did Halfrauds sell you?
They originally sold me a 900A as per the book and it was fine when used daily but struggled if the car wasn't used for a week.
Forum members recommended the MF31-1000 which seems to cope a lot better.
Mine is a TD6 so may have different power requirements to your 4.2.

Left mine for 7 days unused and still had 12.52v

Check the earth strap from engine to chassis, if it has failed, the battery may not charge fully.
A new battery should always be charged before fitting. If the battery is Varta in my experience they are not very good at holding a charge.

Straight for the earth points

body module might be dying, sounds like an internal relay issue
It controls the central locking and the electric steering assist, windows, wipers,
Under the passanger seat,
I had a short in the interior lights on my old td6 and it would shut the steering into heavy and stop the heater panel working and the air suspension lights would go out,

Thanks for the responses, everyone.

Today's update - after charging the battery all day yesterday, this morning I was greeted by, yep, you guessed it - only the front doors unlocking and heavy steering on the way to work - AAARRGGH!!

To respond to some of the questions asked:

- My CTEK is the MXS-5.0 To be accurate, it went off the two LEDs after an hour or two, but took most of the day to get to seven

- My daily journey length is 12 miles to work and 12 miles back, but I've been doing that for the full 4 years since I've owned the car. The only time I've ever previously needed to charge the battery was during long periods of disuse during Covid.

- The Halfrauds battery was a Varta and had the same spec as the original LR battery. My new battery is an Exide from Euro Car Parts and, again, has the same spec.

- Duly noted on the earth straps and points - I will check them out.

There is a electronic valve in the steering system (i think) I think its to give you light steering at low speed but not at higher speeds.
Most of us have fitted bigger capacity batteries than recommended, because they are so elec hungry, and your journeys are not exactly battery charging journeys TBH.
But check all the connections to battery and earths, as they are "free".

J

Roverdrive said:

- My CTEK is the MXS-5.0 To be accurate, it went off the two LEDs after an hour or two, but took most of the day to get to seven

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I don't have a Range Rover, I have a Defender. I have extra items permanently live (security items), which over time, if the car is not used, runs the battery down. About 3 weeks is the longest I will go before giving it a boost charge. The original, and first replacement battery was a Varta (with JLR markings on the original), 95 amp hour and 800CCA. It now has a Bosch 100amp hour / 830CCA. I found that the CTEK 5.0 was not man enough to fully charge the bigger battery, although it should have been according to the book, after getting to the green light and letting it settle for a while, it was showing as under charged on my multi meter. Upgrading to a CTEK 10.0 fixed this. It takes about 8 - 10 hours to show a full charge with the 10.0 and I leave it "on" for 24 hours.

Have to remember that modern cars including the l322, only ever charge the battery to around 80%, for the purpose of lower engine emissions. Given a wet battery is considered flat at 50%, that's not much wiggle room

kermit_rr said:

Have to remember that modern cars including the l322, only ever charge the battery to around 80%, for the purpose of lower engine emissions. Given a wet battery is considered flat at 50%, that's not much wiggle room

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Where on earth did you get that idea?

Datatek said:

Where on earth did you get that idea?

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I read it somewhere sane, but now i can't find it. Now i can only see reference to cars with regen braking doing this

kermit_rr said:

I read it somewhere sane, but now i can't find it. Now i can only see reference to cars with regen braking doing this

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Modern cars have smart alternator regulators designed to recharge the battery after starting as rapidly as possible to cope with the school run using over 15 volts in some case with the voltage tapering off as the battery's state of charge rises. This even happens on my old P38 with the new Mobiltron regulator. I doubt the load on the engine would make much if any difference to emissions.

Datatek said:

Modern cars have smart alternator regulators designed to recharge the battery after starting as rapidly as possible to cope with the school run using over 15 volts in some case with the voltage tapering off as the battery's state of charge rises. This even happens on my old P38 with the new Mobiltron regulator. I doubt the load on the engine would make much if any difference to emissions.

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Totally agree. Reducing battery charge for "emissions" would be crazy with car battery tecknology, especially for short-run drivers !!

It would have to be quite a small engine & big alternator electrical demand to really make a difference !!

.

Yes it's totally bonkers but manufacturers don't care about that or whether it's practical, which is why i didn't really question it