I wouldn’t be happy with the clicking. Sounds as if something hasn’t shut down. I’d be disconnecting the battery from the car so that I’m just charging it rather than trying to run the whole car at the same time and I’d be fitting a battery monitor.

As a last resort ---
Have you thought of fitting an In-line Battery Isolator Switch, to stop any possibility of losing charge if left for periods of time without use. FL2 XS SD4 Auto 2010 2012-2017 (21k - 91k miles) (MY2011)
FL2 Metropolis SD4 Auto 2014 2017- (16k - 77k+ miles) (MY2015)
Metro in its 11th Year of (Extended) LR Warranty / Full LR Service History
(Expensive, but Trouble/Worry free - hopefully?)

Well, borrowed a power pack from the garage and booked it up.

All checks are good, everything electrical in the car works BUT hitting the starter just gets a click.

I left the power pack connected direct to the battery for a good 10 mins and no difference.

No idea what that points to, other than no power to the starter motor but what could fail that causes that and flatten the battery?

Its possible could be the starter? I had a Mini cooper S many years ago and it was displaying similar symptoms after much head scratching turned out the starter was draining too much power put new one on all ok. I know old school electrics but worth a thought? 2013 FL2 XS.
Defender 90 300 TDi.
Defender 90 300 TDi CSW.
1964 MGB Roadster.
1944 Willys MB "Jeep" with bullet holes. (gone)
17 hand Irish Drought Thoroughbred (mostly lame)
Nagging Old Boiler.

Mahatma Gandhi said if there is an Idiot in power those who elected him are well represented

Definitely worth a check, challenge is going to be getting her started to get to the garage!

I'm not sure the AA will 'rescue' me from my own home to a garage.

I’ve had similar symptoms on a car before it turned out to be really dirty and loose starter motor connections.

Sounds like a good place to start, is it easy enough to access the starter motor?

I'm not really a tinkerer but I'm ok following instructions.

The starter is a simple device . Fairly easily removed.
Check the excellent and free JLR workshop manual available from this forum.

You can buy repair kits for the starter solenoid - a faulty one can cause clicks and non-starting.

Be very careful not to drop anything into the bellhousing when the starter has been removed. It can a real nightmare getting it out again.
Guess how I know.


Also starter electrical connections need to be lovely and clean - high current, low voltage situation. Jules

Well, with nothing seeming to work I was all set to call out the AA and get her towed when in a throwaway comment my local mechanic said 'sometimes a battery just needs a lift from another car before it'll charge' so....

Unable to jump start it because of where it's parked I got the battery out which isn't easy with a bad back and sat it on jump with another car running for 20-25 minutes.

Hooked it up to the charger and many hours later it registered dead. Undaunted I tried again and this time it came up good after around 48 hours.

Not convinced I an the charger on and off over the next few days and came up good every time so come the weekend we decided to give it one more go.

Battery in and connected, key in and electrics start to whirr away, press starts for system check and all good so, remembering we'd had exactly the same with the jump pack hit the starter and.....

Instant starting.?????!!!!!!

Took her for a run and did have reduced performance which has often happened with a low battery so parked up somewhere accessible and tried again next morning. Starts first time, no reduced performance this time.

These are exactly the symptoms we had before we got the battery replaced, seemingly random days when the battery is completely flat but a jump start works and then days or weeks go by before it happens again.

We always double lock. Do have one sticky door switch which sometimes doesn't lock so there's a tiny maybe that's it but......

The one thing different was when we'd hooked up the battery, before starting, we tried to push her backwards just to see if we could do it if she wouldn't start so we could get a jump lead. Only rocked her back and forth maybe a cpl of inches.

Cannot think of a reason why that tiny movement would nudge something but you never know.

I've got an extra earth cable off ebay, and a replacement starter motor solenoid so she's going into the garage for a daily check over a week or so and to fir the cable and check the solenoid out just in case they can't find anything else.

But if it happens again she's going to have to go and we'll need to do a sneaky trade in on a good day. Don't like passing the problem on but needs must.