Having bought a 2010 Freelander 2 TD4 Auto XS from an independent Landrover dealer back in Jan, I appear to have inherited a car with the dreaded 'intermittent start' problem (ie key fob inserted, foot on brake, start button pressed, all normal dashboard lights on and 'system check in progress' but not even the click of a starter solenoid). Steering lock releases fine, brake pedal feels normal but sometimes goes firm, gear shift tried in both neutral and park positions, new battery fitted etc - it just sits there as though it is having a good old think about life. As per the recommendations from previous threads on here, the hard reset (ie battery disconnected and terminals touched together) seems to clear the problem, for a few weeks (I have yet to find the brown plug in the passenger footwell to achieve the same effect). Before I launch down the diagnostic checks, software updates and new instrument cluster avenues, I would be interested to hear from anyone who has had any other eureka moments with this issue recently.

hello
you can read this
http://www.freel2.com/forum/topic7404-30.html

regards

foot on brake? surely foot on clutch ?

Iain

The car is auto Iain.

Mine very occasionally does this... I have always put it down to not actually depressing the brake pedal and thus just switching on the ignition. A second touch of the starter with brake firmly depressed always fixes it.

Very occasionally it starts but very little actually works. It is only as I start to reverse out of a car park space say, that I discover I have no throttle along with no fuel gauge etc. This I have attributed to trying to drive of without giving the car time to complete it's system checks etc. Switch off, re-start and invariably, all is well again.

It never does it if I pause a for moment between starting & trying to drive away.

Thanks for the replies.

Farmer31, thanks for the link - I had already seen it.

HappyNomad, clearly similar issues but pressing harder on the brake pedal doesn't help in my case. And when mine does decide to start, everything functions normally. I did hear a couple of random parking sensor beeps and squeaks on one occasion as I pulled away with no objects close to the car.

I had the fault again today and was reluctant to reset the computer logic (by disconnecting the battery) in case I lost any useful fault codes - as I was planning to book it in for some diagnostic checks this week. Interestingly, although this has happened a number of times, and I thought I had tried all of the usual tips, I decided to apply a little pressure to the key fob after it had been drawn into the reader slot - but not firmly enough to make it eject again - and the car started! I realise it might have been a coincidence so I will try this method again next time it happens, and report back. I assume replacing a warn (key-fob) reader unit will still be an expensive fix.

More odd behaviour today. Sometimes, when the car is having one of its starting episodes, the key-fob will not eject for a while. I am beginning to miss having a car with a conventional key, a manual gearbox, a petrol engine, no computer and a windscreen without wiggly bits of wire in it. At least the Freelander does not have a button for a handbrake.

Separate question - does anyone know why (when I double-lock the car) the mirrors sometimes fold in and sometimes not? I have tried doing the double-press on the key fob both quickly and slowly but can't seem to find a method to make them fold every time (or stay out every time).