2011 RR Vogue SE TdV8

My car has the FBH with remote keyring and 'Timed climate' function. It exhibits the following behaviour which I assume is unusual, certainly undesirable:

*When you start the pre-heat cycle - for example on a cold morning - with the remote, the LEDs flash more or less in accordance with the instructions in the handbook and the FBH starts. You can hear it firing as well as the fuel pump ticking towards the rear of the vehicle. The windscreen starts to clear, but then, after fewer than five minutes running, the heater will stop.

*Using the 'Timed climate' program on the display screen in the dash, setting seems straight forward and I can get the heater to fire up at the desired time but once again it turns off after only a few minutes and neither warms the interior of the car, nor defrosts the windows.

*Very often, when turning the car off and either sitting in the car or leaving it and locking it, the ventilation fans will keep running for a period of ten minutes or so, often resulting in a 'Battery low, start engine' message being displayed. On other occasions, the FBH will randomly start and will run for long periods - 30, 40 minutes+ while blowing warm air into the cabin - all with the car turned off and the key well away from it.

I only bought the car as 'Approved used' a month or so ago, and when the problems became apparent I called the dealer in Oxford whom I had bought the car from (I live in Sussex) and they said I should get the local main agent to look at it for me - under the Sale of Goods act rather than as a warranty issue - and they would sort out the bill.

I asked my local dealer, Harwoods of Pulborough, about the issues with the fan/FBH, including the 'Battery low, start engine' message which I was often getting while waiting for my wife outside the station, and the service reception guy told me that it is not possible (permissible) to listen to the radio without the engine running in a RangeRover as it will flatten the battery. Has Landrover really built a luxury automobile in which one cannot wait with the radio on - quietly! It turns out to also give this message when waiting without the radio on, so that does not sound like the issue.

The car is booked into Harwoods this week (only a three week wait for available workshop time!) and it would be nice to give them every chance to get the problems resolved if someone here has had the same problems. I suspect the fan/FBH running on to be responsible for the battery being low - though I do tend to do short journeys, I also do a longer run at least once a week and neither my Defender, VW T5 nor MX5 has ever had any problems with battery charging over the same cycle.

Anyone had a similar problem?

Cheers

Chris

I'd suggest to ask them to check all service bulletins related to this model year / VIN. I remember battery upgrades and battery management software upgrades.

And waiting somewhere without running engine listening to the radio not being possible sounds ludicrous to me unless it's for hours. MY 2010 5.0 SC Galway green and sand interior!!
Have the Faultmate MSV2 Extreme to be tinkering with the settings etc. !!

I think it is a bit harsh to say it is not "permissible" to listen to the radio with the engine off BUT we do know that they do have very "fragile" batteries to be honest. Example - leave the doors open for any length of time while cleaning the car, perhaps using a plug in car vac will certainly flatten the battery.

I suspect gbmud check your battery for condition and give it a full charge.

You should also check the status of the alternate as these have been known to fail and not charge correctly.

There is also a service bulletin or upgrade on certain final stage resistors that could account for the extra/inconsistent running of the fuel burning heater.

Have a search on here for FBH and final stage resistors (separate searches) and you should find quite a lot. Ash
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2016 SDV8 AB

You should not compare the RR with the other vehicles. Rightly or wrongly there is a HUGE amount of electronic gadgetry going on in the full fat (air suspension height sensors, tyre pressure monitors etc etc all of which take a big chunk of battery) all constantly monitoring what is going on.

very silver lining has a cloud etc.... and something we learn to live with. I do short journeys in mine and put it on charge each weekend to be sure. Ash
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2016 SDV8 AB

Your symptoms are common
Even with a new battery you will get that message after about 15 minutes. As said above there is a lot going on if you switch the engine off and remain in the car without locking the doors (which switches everything down including the fbh which stays on below 7 degrees )

My problem is the FBH remaining on (starting unbidden?) with the doors locked, even at 16 degrees the other day! I cannot think this is doing anything for battery life!

Chris

Fbh should not operate at 16 degrees?
There is a problem?
Get your codes read.

Thanks, I'll do it tomorrow.

Chris

My guess is that your battery is near the end of its life and is struggling. As noted above the need for the whole system to fire up before the radio will work or the FBH will run is part of the problem. I suspect it cuts off when it reaches a certain level. There are stories on here about people watching TV on ferries/ch tunnel and then having to be pushed off at the other end because doing so has drained the battery so much that it could no longer start the car...

You might consider a trickle charger if you can plug this in overnight. From what I have read on here you can get an adaptor which plugs into tow electrics, which is probably the most elegant solution, though I have plugged such a charger into the always live lighter socket on my 2004 car and just shut the door on the cable - there seemed enough give in the seal to permit that. I think the later cars may not have all sockets live all the time, you would need to check - I think the rear socket rather than the cigarette lighter ones would be the one to use. Only Range Rovers since 1988

Thanks. I believe that my use should not require any additional charging - based on anecdotal evidence from other RangeRover drivers. I will be able to re-evaluate once I get confirmation that the battery and charging system are both good and the ventilation fans/FBH have stopped randomly running when the car is left unattended...

Chris

Well, the car went in to the dealer yesterday to be looked at. I felt that they had pre-diagnosed the problem as being a low battery so they charged the battery and it passed their test as bing 'good'. There are apparently no fault codes relating to the FBH so as far as they are concerned there is no fault - they must assume that I am making up the symptoms I have been getting.

So, am I making it up? Perhaps I have misunderstood the whole heater thing. I am going to start a new thread to try to understand what others think the FBH should do, and how their's behaves as I am sure mine is not operating correctly.

Cheers for the ideas

Chris