Defender Puma Electrical Issue

**Bigblue** · 2013/02/27, 07:54 AM

Hi Guys

For a while I have had an intermittent issue with my battery light coming on, rev counter drops to zero and temp guage goes into the red. This puts the vehicle into 'limp' mode with drastically reduced performance.. Often just stopping the car, either just switching off or sometimes locking (with remote) and unlocking resolves the problem.

Last year L/R replaced the ECU and it seemed that the issue 'went away'. Problem is now recurring and happening daily now (basically every trip).

Seemed like a loose connection of sorts since it was happening intermittently especially on a rough road.

Yesterday went to the indy and he checked all earth connections, other connectors / plug sockets etc., thought he found a dodgy wiring plug socket in wiring loom running over top of engine which seemed to resolve the issue. He has (and yesterday) previously checked all the relays etc. Drove back from PTA to JHB all good and the issue recurred about 3km before home.

Incidentally the one key fob / remote stopped working about 3 weeks ago, changed the battery - still doesnt work.

Last night I decided to bypass the alarm / immobiliser using the vehicles EKA code and today driving to work the abovementioned issue did not recur. In the past week it has generally been ocurrung once every trip but the trip to work is only 12k's so perhaps I should not get too excited...

Points to note:
- vehicle has had two new Ignition wiring harnesses in four years
- one new ECU (now over a year old)
- alarm remote previously stopped working, was never replaced but started to work again after one new ignition wiring harness fitted (despite L/R having told me the remote was AFU and needed replacing at R 600 + R 800 to program)
- never 'drowned' the vehicle or waded excessively deep - nothing higher than halfway up the wheel and no excess distances

Indy wants the vehicle back and I will leave it for a few days for a more thorough check / tracing of faults on any of the wiring.

Just frustrated and a bit worried as next weekend I have a Waterberg trip planned which I dont want to cancel and I dont want any trouble on the road either......

To try and speed up the troubleshooting process I'd appreciate ay advice or feedback from anyone who has had a similar issue. I have trawled all forums / the net and have not found a power loss / electrical issue of this sorts mentioned.. Everything seems EGR / Turbo related and we know this isn't.

Regards

Paul

**RobH** · 2013/02/27, 08:05 AM

The only time I've had similar symptoms was when the ignition relay under the driver's seat packed up.

The alarm/immobiliser has been know to give issues, you may well be onto something there. Have you searched through Defender2.net, there is a chap on there Lorryman100 (Brian) who has gone into detail about this issue.

Sorry I can't be of more help.

**Bigblue** · 2013/02/27, 08:40 AM

Thanks Rob, just waiting for my Defender2. net profile to be approved then will lookup lorryman

**RobH** · 2013/02/27, 09:08 AM

Just a quickie on the ECU. The service manager at my local stealer said the easiest way to tell if you had an ECU issue was that the vehicle would "hiccup". This is caused by the ECU trying to reset itself. I managed to replicate this by chance when I was playing with my Nanocom one day, I nealy kakked myself.

**RobH** · 2013/02/27, 09:15 AM

Have a look here, although I can't see the pics.

http://www.defender2.net/forum/topic8577.html

**Bigblue** · 2013/02/27, 01:49 PM

Thanks Rob again for the info. From what I read there I think you may have pointed me to the exact issue, next I will get the contacts checked for the immobiliser unit and if corroded I suspect it is condensation from my aircon causing it....

So far today with immobiliser decommissioned the car is behaving perfectly.....probably still too good to tell but it is somewhat of a relief anyway......

Regards

Paul