2010 VSE TDV8

The first sign of trouble was the Adaptive Front Lighting System warning light - bottom left of dash - would come on randomly, but not on all journeys. When it came on it would be cleared by restarting then all was well again. Might not happen again for a few days.

Yesterday however, the engine miss fired when idling and all sorts of lights came on then extinguished including EBC failure, camera system inoperative, handbrake warning and others. Again, switching off cleared all faults.

Today, the dashboard lit up again with all sorts of things in turn then those lights went out and others came on and went out and the only remaining symptom was the orange triangle except the wipers wouldn’t work anymore. Restarting clears warning lights but the wipers now have a permanent failure even after multiple restarts. Everything else seems to work ok.

Any ideas?

I would check your battery, if it’s on the way out you start to get these random events

had a look at battery this morning.

before starting terminal voltage was 11.88 .

engine started fine.

alternator did nothing till about 10 seconds then battery terminal voltage rise to 14.5v.

monitored terminal voltage whist engine idling then after about 10 seconds a sudden foray for about 1 second up to 16-17v with a slight engine miss fire then returned to 14.5. after this the message on dash was "gearbox fault".

turned off engine and terminal voltage was now 12.4 obv due to charging.

restarted engine, gearbox warning light now off and after 5 seconds alternator kicks in and we see 14.5v then another quick spike to 16-17v with slight engine miss fire and "gearbox fault" message reappears. wipers now working again.

does this sound like an alternator regulator fault? it had a replacement non-genuine one about 10k miles ago.

If you have 11.88V on the battery after opening the car it suggests your battery is due for replacement even if it did start the car. It would be worth getting the battery tested to be sure.

i wonder what is causing the voltage spike? ... - .- -.




Y. O. L. O.
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had another look at battery voltage an hour later and all looked fine whilst it was idling - even the wipers were working again!

arranged to take a friends local garage for investigation and half way around a tight bend lost power steering for half a second which was a little scary (note: the engines revs don't completely die to the point that it stops turning so the steering pump must also still be turning creating power assistance so i think its an electronic shutdown due to the voltage spike).

when it recovered after 1/2 second lots of dash warning lights and messages flashed up in turn and pressing OK cleared all messages except the orange triangle. no wipers again however,

he checked the genuine LR 3 year old battery and his machine declared it 93% good condition and 65% charged.

we sat with his voltmeter monitoring the battery voltage and all looked good at 14.2 with no spikes within the 10 min that we had it idling.

he called another guy who specialises in land rovers who said the spike was a common issue on those alternators caused by an intermittent connection on the stator winding.

new denso alternator getting fitted on Tuesday and i will report back on results.

Yep, my money would be on the alternator.

I had a similar issue on my '06 4.2SC, with the only symptom being the gearbox ecu throwing it into trans failsafe mode. Spent alot of time investigating the box, replacing bits, checking solenoids, rooster comb, rebuilding mechatronic unit etc.etc. and it was all down to the alternator in the very earliest stages of failure; the voltage would drop just enough for a split second every few weeks and the gearbox ecu was the most sensitive of all the electronics on mine. I only found it one day when the battery symbol blinked at me once! New oem Denso alternator and never came back.

Hope it sorts it for you. All the best

So, alternator replaced and all is well!

£350 for new Denso alternator new belt and including labour.

That seems like a good price with a new belt and fitting too. I paid £300 just for the alternator alone and shopped around.

Glad to hear it's all sorted for you.

yes, i thought that was pretty good too though the guy does regular stuff on my cars.

for anyone else looking for a Denso alternator they're £225 delivered from Maltings though I believe mine was supplied by Wood Auto


https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/range-rover-tdv...SwmXlanFqT

given the protracted time to remove and replace its maybe false economy to fit a non - Denso one. The alternator that went bad on my car was a pattern and only fitted 2 years / 10k miles ago. I'm fed up with non-genuine parts failing prematurely.