Freelander 2 Flat Battery

Yesterday, Ian and I made a trip to see a friend in Telford. All three of us went to Wales for the day and a jolly good time was had by all. Got back home about 9:30pm last night, parked the Freelander and then went inside.

As I couldn’t park directly outside my house last night, I went out to the vehicle around midday and was going to move it. The following sequence of events then happened: –

1. Put the key fob in the dash. Ignition lights come on etc
2. Pressed the start button
3. Engine didn’t turn over just a CLICK.
4. Instrument pack resets and key fob locked in receptacle.
5. After a few seconds system recovered and ignition lights came back on.
6. This happened again when I pressed the start button.

I knew this was a flat battery as it has happened to me before a few months ago. Disconnected the battery and it’s now on charge.

After a quick session of Googling, I found this post on the Freelander 2 forum. One of the things mentioned in the post was that it happened to someone after they turned the ignition off whilst still using mobile phone via Bluetooth. Mobile then goes from handsfree to normal mode and all is expected to be well. Unfortunately though it seems as if  this is the problem I have encountered.

Once the battery is charged and re-installed I’m going to adopt the following strategy: –

1. End any phone call and turn off Bluetooth before turning off the engine.
2. Make sure wipers & headlights are not on auto also before turning off the engine.
3. Double lock the vehicle (tend to do this anyway).

I’ll report any findings back here and hopefully get the problem resolved. If you have had similar experiences, please leave a comment here or tweet us @greenlandrover.

Update  (20/10/13 19:47)
I forgot to mention earlier that after an impromptu stop at a well known supermarket on the way to Ian’s, I had an incident when after starting, the dashboard battery light came on and the vehicle didn’t respond to throttle inputs (i.e. just stayed at tickover). After about 30s, the battery light went out and everything was fine. Most bizarre! (Similar incidents reported here on Freelander 2 Forum)

Update  (24/10/13)
Freelander is booked in at Stratstone Land Rover Solihull for investigation on Monday 28/10/13. I’ll report back after the visit.

Update  (28/10/13)
Freelander dropped off at Stratstone Land Rover Solihull this morning. They can’t find a fault as yet. Told them about the land Rover technical Bulletin LTB00391 (which can be downloaded here).

Update  (29/10/13)
Nav system etc firmware updated as per LTB00391. Advised to keep an eye on it and call back if there’s a problem. As always great service from Jack at Stratstone. Nice guy and ex Air Cadet to boot!