Hx has spent the last 18mth or so 'resting' with nothing like 'Daily Driver' status.
Recently usage has improved and a period of waking things up and checking things out has ensued. Of course, sitting still and doing nothing is not good in the long term and several issues have emerged, the worst being so far a drained battery!
Hx has always been locked and unlocked via the remote. The 'deadlock' feature is always engaged when locked. In the past I can only recall using the key manually in the lock for a short period when the ultrasonic alarm was acting up due to the common leaky sunroof syndrome!
Imagine the horror when I went out to unlock the other day and nothing, no response from the central locking to the key-fob. At first I thought the key-fob battery was dead. I tried the spare remote and still nothing...
I knew that the vehicle battery was a bit suspect after the long rest, but it had never lost the power to 'open' the vehicle before? I foolishly thought that the key would manually open the driver's door but no, the D2 uses solenoid controlled locks that need electrical power to operate. At that moment, as the key just loosely flapped side to side in the lock, I longed for the simple ways of the D1!
After the panic settled and with the understanding that the battery was completely dead, I had to figure out what to do. Rave, and the Owners handbook where silent on the subject and Google offered its usual dose of chatter with questionable results.
The Asbo solution is to break things, rip off the grill, smash a window, remove the rear window, or bend back the door frame in order to get access to the hood release. Bear in mind that the doors will be super-locked and will not open so crawling inside over broken glass is not recommended and rather foolish.
I read online about using an auxiliary battery to power up the alarm circuit and thought there's the sweet answer! Figured the alarm system only draws a micro current when set and therefore a small battery is all that is needed..
Luckily, I had a spare 12v 45amp battery, and all I needed were the jump leads, but they were locked in the boot of Hx! I scrambled around for some suitable cabling and crocodile clips and planned to connect the spare battery directly to the starter motor and the chassis, pretty much the same and mirroring a normal jump start situation.
The Landy's ground clearance allows easy access to the starter motor electrical contacts from below which are thankfully positioned on the underside of the Starter Motor body.
I consulted Rave's electrical diagrams just to confirm my thinking. There is only two wire connectors to the Starter motor, one thin and one thick. The thick wire goes direct to the vehicle Battery POSITIVE terminal.
The thin wire is the ignition circuit enabler that powers the solenoid on the starter. The connection must be made to the thicker wire on the starter and there is a handy prominent bolted connection available to clip onto. The Starter Motor itself is earthed via its physical connection to the bell-housing and so the second cable can be connected to a convenient vehicle earth point.
Decided there was simply no way I was going to be under Hx when the spare battery was connected! Despite thinking it through, I just couldn't shake the idea that the engine might kick into life and Hx would wreak revenge on me. So I routed around for two lengths of cabling at least 4ft long so that they could be attached underneath and run out from under the vehicle to the spare battery.
The 'positive' lead MUST be connected to the thick cable on the Starter Motor as this is itself connected direct to the vehicle positive battery terminal.
The 'negative' lead was clipped to the ribbing on the gearbox casing.
There was no sparking or such when the spare battery was connected and with one simple push on the key fob button, the doors unlocked as normal!
Popped the hood and went straight into re-charging the fitted battery. I took a voltage reading before re-charging and it was showing 6.3 volts. Decided that was new battery territory...
Last used Hx over a week ago and all was OK so that pointed to some electrical glitch. I checked the obvious and discovered a courtesy light in the rear passenger compartment was left on. This was hopefully the cause, eating away at a probably depleted battery all along.
UPDATE - The battery on Hx was re-charged and has since been OK. Initially I was going to replace it. It was fitted nearly five years ago so has given good service. I priced out the replacement from 'Tayna' who do an incredibly efficient postal delivery service, but figure to give the old battery one more chance.
I have fitted a voltmeter into the AUX socket to monitor the battery and charging voltages. Makes me wonder why LR never fitted one themselves? Oh! let me guess, the old LR ...'that'll do" approach!
