Strap yourself in and grab a large scotch because today has been a long and painful journey.

For the last couple of days the fullfat had been playing up a little, nothing major just the normal L322 tdv8 magic I have come to know and expect. This weekend it was the turn of the red airbag warning light illuminating and the yellow active headlamp indicator flashing, using my IIDtool i reset them and off they went occasionally popping on to remind me i was driving a rangerover. Although the dashboard lights pointed to airbags and headlamps the actual fault codes stored were

C0051-62 (2c) steering wheel position sensor Algorithm based failure
U3000-16 (AE) Control module - General electrical failure - circuit voltage below threshold
U3003-62 (AA) Battery voltage - Algorithm based failure signal compare failure

I had to go out today so i thought regardless i would give it a run over to York however when pulling out of the lane i had a new error message on the LCD display screen displaying suspension fault. I pulled over checked the suspension and all was working just fine so thought carry on regardless and have a proper look when i get home. About fifteen miles into my journey the car decided it had gone far enough and decided to show me every single warning light on the dashboard including warnings of limited gears, parking brake fault and all gauges stopping working, just before it decided to cut out all together luckily the verge was nice and wide so i just pointed it in that direction and parked up safely. I had a quick look under the bonnet suspecting an alternator/electrical fault however all looked ok so disconnected/reconnected the battery and the car fired up, still with a large amount of warning messages however then cut out again after around ten seconds. Thinking recovery was the only answer i called the AA.

AA Man (Very nice man) arrives and finds the positive terminal was a little loose and thought that could have been the answer so started to reset trouble codes. Car restarted and run for a good ten minutes so at this point we were feeling pretty smug that it had been that all along i had a quick look around the car and then noticed the brake lights were stuck on, at this moment the car also died again. AA man (did I mention he was a very nice man) once again started to clear fault codes again restarted the car and this time tested the alternator output which was showing 14V which i what i would expect to see. At this point we decided to try and get the car to a proper layby about two miles down the road as his AA van was blocking the only major road between Beverley and York, other than the car not wanting to go into top gear it drove just fine, once in the layby he again had another go at clearing every error code this time including the gearbox with a view of then having a go at getting it to a garage in Beverley under its own steam. All fault codes cleared and sure enough it started and drove perfectly all the way back to beverley in all sorts of road and traffic conditions. AA man was just writing his report when i suggested just before he signed off to switch the car off and on to see what happened …….sure enough a new batch of fault codes yet again.

The car is now sat at my local garage, everything in my mind is pointing to a electrical alternator/regulator/canbus fault if anyone has actually managed to get to the bottom of this without falling to sleep and has any suggestions of where to start please feel free to chip in with any advice.

Regards

Paul


AA Mans report below.

Patrol found the following fault code/s:System : Engine control - 7M0 / Diesel CR/EDC SID 203 Status :U0416 - CAN communication with vehicle dynamics control unit. Error Message : Malfunction. Error sporadic. Status :U0121 - CAN communication with ABS/ESP control units. Error Message : Malfunction. Fault pending. Status :U0138 - CAN communication with 4WD electronics. Error Message : Malfunction. Error sporadic. Status :U0151 - CAN communication with airbag control unit. Error Message : Malfunction. Error sporadic.loss of power,keeps cutting out? But always restarts ,many warning lights coming on/staying on.Obd lots of comms faults stored,charging ok,found loose battery terminal,resecured,clear codes ,noticed brake lights staying on ,pumped pedal lights went out.Follow to safe location/test . Driver said gear change didnt feel the same as usual. Found comms codes in gear box ecu,cleared codes follow to garage ,ran faultlessly. Stopped and restarted at garage and warning lights came back on Garage to i investigate

May sound silly. But how old is your battery. Quite often when you get a bunch of crazy faults like this the battery is too blame. Regards

Daz

-------------------------
2011 (61plate) 4.4 tdv8
sumatra black

previous cars

e46 m3
e53 x5

I was worried it was a real meltdown

Best case: gremlins
Worst case: something expensive has gone south, but difficult to diagnose...

As suggested:

Battery right off and leave for a good few hours, charge it, ensure it is fully charged and holding, touch terminals, refit battery, tighten terminals, see what you got .
Experience is the only genuine knowledge, but as time passes, I have forgotten more than I can remember
Volvo V70 P2 2006 2.4 Petrol 170bhp Estate SE
MG Midget Mk1 1962

Previous: L322 Range Rover TDV8 3.6 2008; L322 Range Rover TD6 3.0 2002; P38A Range Rover V8 1999

Replacement of Ignition switch fixed all these issues.

Great that it was a simple fix but what lead to suspect the ignition switch?

wowsers , as above , how was that diagnosis reached pal ?