Battery Drain
Asked by Benimel Jan 03, 2017 at 09:03 PM about the 2010 Land Rover LR2 HSE
Question type: Maintenance & Repair
My LR2 died again last week. The battery wasn't
even a year old yet. I took the battery to LR and
they gave me a new one (still under warranty). I
took the battery back and installed it but my vehicle
wouldn't start because it was in crash mode. I paid
$86 to have it towed to LR where they cleared the
crash mode, called me and told me it was ready to
go. I hung up and got ready to leave when LR
called me back to tell me my alternator was bad
and that I was looking at about $1400.00 to fix. I've
had a persistent battery drain that LR could not
diagnose since I bought it. Of course my alternator
is going to go bad if the battery drains every time I
turn it off. I submitted all of my info for the class
action law suit but I cannot rely on a vehicle that
MIGHT start in the morning so, I picked it up from
the LR dealership and drove it next door to the
Nissan dealership and traded it in for a Nissan the
same day. I'll never buy a LR again.
6 Answers
"Of course my alternator is going to go bad if the battery drains every time I turn it off." Your statement is totally incorrect. Next time you buy something do some research. Land Rovers have a terrible reputation for reliability.
How is this statement totally incorrect? Please elaborate. I will! Every time your battery dies and goes completely flat, the capacity of that battery to store a charge is diminished. As your battery gets weaker and weaker the voltage regulator on your alternator will send more and more current. This causes the alternator to get hot, especially at idle speeds. A constantly overheated alternator will cause the bearings to wear out quicker. I have also read in many LR forums where other people with the same problem have gone through more than one alternator. You're not talking to someone who barely knows how to change their own wiper blades here.
A drained battery is really not hard on an alternator, but a defective battery (one with a dead cell) never fully charges and that can be hard on the alternator. What was your question?
Blanketofstars answered 5 years ago
We have been having the parasitic battery drain problem on our 2010 LR2 for several years (battery dead after not driving it for a day or two). We have replaced batteries, done extensive troubleshooting and ultimately had to purchase a charger so we could start our Land Rover when we found the battery was dead on many mornings. Finally our mechanic was able to confirm there is a 500milliamp draw on the battery when the vehicle is off. They were able to reduce the draw to 60milliamps by turning off ALL AUTOMATIC FEATURES before turning off the car (auto climate control, auto headlights, auto windshield wipers, auto Bluetooth connect) and being sure to LOCK THE VEHICLE. By doing these things our LR2 has started reliably for a week now. Apparently the auto features and leaving the car unlocked keeps the computer from going into standby mode which means it's constantly drawing 500milliamps while parked overnight, killing the battery. I'm so curious if this solution works for others. Please let me know!! I am cautiously optimistic that we can rely on our LR2 again.
Thanks to this forum I found the root cause to be the tailgate switch shorted internally on my 2008 FL2. A clue you are on the right track is an ebay tailgate switch and housing as a stand alone item! (£12). Quiescent current drain 8mA after locking and an hour. Also had the rear diff and bonnet switch problems which were easier to diagnose!
I have an LR2 and believe it our not it drained in a few days if I shut the radio off before i turned the car off. I stumbled on this by accident. I was turning everything off hoping it would help not to drain the battery. Then I saw a post about it and the guy was saying that shutting the radio off would cause the vehicle to continually scan for satellite for the satellite radio which was enough draw to kill battery. If I keep the radio on (volume can be zero) it won't go dead in three days. I too bought a portable jumper it died so often. Have no proof about the satellite scanner killing the battery but leaving the radio on seem to fix it. Strange but true.
