Hi all, first post but long term browser before I finally took the plunge and bought one a couple of months back.

I have a strange starting issues in my AJ V8. I would say 99 times out of 100 it will start fine, but on the odd occasion wont start at all. All electrical accessories power up as normal(plus fitted a new Bosch 020 battery just in case). Turn the key and I get HDC fault and Limited Gears faults, but does not turn over at all.

What I have found is that cycling the gears usually does the job and it will then start(sometimes splutters and hunts around for a while but this may be unrelated). Sometimes it takes a few attempts of cycling the gears. I work away and my wife informs me it is becoming more frequent, might be related to cold weather though?

Any thought on where to look first? Is there a transmission ECU plug that may have got wet or damaged? I had thought about starter motor also as saw posts about the casings cracking, but not sure this would throw up the trans faults?

Last edited by gav525 on 26th Jan 2019 8:14am. Edited 1 time in total

Welcome to the club
It definitely sounds like an electrical issue & my first thought would have been battery, but you've ruled that one out.
Have you taken the gear selector cover off & wiggled all the wires around & see if you have any bad connections?.

The reason is that it sounds like the inhibitor is kicking in, regardless of what gear it is in & you can also check the HDC switch.

It's Just a teaser so you get used to things to come Good luck.

Cheers for the reply highroller.

I haven’t taken the cover off yet, but will do when I get home in 10 days(work overseas).

It definitely sounds electronic like you say, it just kills the start function completely and flashes up the warnings on the dash.

Do these have the same style inhibitor/XYZ switch on them as the M62 V8 does as I’ve seen it mentioned a few times? If it makes any difference it does show P on the dash display when it refuses to start.

Unsure on the inhibitor type, but if the ECU thinks that it's in gear, It will not feed the starter. HDC can display on a low battery, so may be just coming on whilst the drain to start it. I would't worry about that at the moment (unless it doesn't extinguish).

I would try each gear selection, one at a time & see if the display changes, Noting what it displays once it turns over.

Good luck when you get back.

My 2004 L322 does it occasionally. I move the gearlever and it starts. I suspect the XYZ switch is out of adjustment after the transmission replacement.

I'll have to remember to check the dash to see what gear is shown there. Ron B. VK2OTC
2003 L322 V8 Auto
2007 Yamaha XJR1300
Previous: 1983, 1986 RRC; 1995, 1996 P38A; 1995 Disco1; 1984 V8 County 110; Series IIA

Either it’s the park inhibitor, where the gearbox isn’t quite recognising P or the selector cable needs liubing up under the car. Have a search is fairly common to have gearstick position probmlems in relation to what gear it’s actually in. A good spray of grease and a wiggle about will normally free it up. https://www.fullfatrr.com/forum/post87201.html#87201, There is nothing that can't be fixed with a hammer😜😜
FFRR 4.4 SDV8 Autobiography Santorini Black.
KIA E-Niro 4+
2021 Discovery 5 D300 MHEV commercial

Perfect, many thanks for all the replies so far. Gives me plenty to look at when I get home again and hopefully get to the bottom of it.

Will report back with what I find

My XYZ switch went and cost me a shade under £600 inc labour at a local LR Specialist - only agreed cos he said he would fit a genuine part and I made my credit card company agree to pay the bill. Fitted a pattern part and managed to break my window switch in the process - another £300 . Never been back there since.

bruno22rf wrote:

My XYZ switch went and cost me a shade under £600 inc labour at a local LR Specialist - only agreed cos he said he would fit a genuine part and I made my credit card company agree to pay the bill. Fitted a pattern part and managed to break my window switch in the process - another £300 . Never been back there since.

The 5-speed (bruno22rf) and 6-speed (gav525) transmissions have completely different types of inhibitor switch with the 5-speed one being mounted externally

Click image to enlarge

Click image to enlarge

Sorry I didn't spot that yours is a different model - but yes, mine had a similar fault somedays it was fine, others you had to move the gear selector up and down a couple of times before the engine got the message that it was in neutral - occasionally it would go into restricted mode whilst driving.

Unnecessary quote removed

Ah I see now, cheers for the advice Phil, much appreciated.

Like I say, I’ll check for any obvious external faults first with wires, linkages etc, then will get codes read and go from there. It’s a very good contender at the minute having read the thread you linked above.

It had a gearbox service 9k miles ago before I bought it, does servicing them sometimes throw up issues? Also the fault has never appeared when driving(yet), only on start up. Is this something a failing mechatronic unit could do?

OK so yesterday morning in the snow when the wife needed the RR most, it completely let her down. I'm still away until next week so trying to get as much info from her as possible.

She says when she first put the key in, there was nothing at all. I'm not sure if the steering lock disengaged, but she says when she turned the key everything was dead. Tried again and all electrics came on as normal, but had the usual trans fault and HDC fault so wouldn't even turn over. Cycling the gears had no impact and it would not start at all. Maybe the cold impacts it?

Have a Landrover tech going to the house tonight with diagnostic equipment, so hopefully he gets to the bottom of it and we can get it fixed. Will report back with findings!

Finally go to the bottom of this!

Turns out it was the starter motor all along. Contacts inside were a mess, had it rebuilt for £60, reinstalled it and now starting first time every time!

First problem sorted, just to wait for the next issue now.

At least you know your linkage is ok.