Last night was the first time it has really got anywhere near "cold" where I live (it was about -6). The freelander had been stood unused since Monday evening and when I tried to start the freelander this morning it wouldn't fire up.

"Low Voltage" appeared on the stereo display the first time I tried to start it- first time sounded sluggish, second time more so, and third time it wouldn't even turn the starter motor.

Has anyone else had any problems starting this morning?

It did the same a couple of times last winter but it has been fine right through the rest of the year.

I'm thinking it may be time to change the battery? It is a 57 plate and I think it is on the original battery.

Has anyone got any other suggestions or any other known faults that may be causing the starting problem when it is cold??

Thanks Black, S, TD4, Manual.

It really does sound like a screwed battery especially if it is the original. Get it tested. John
07 HSE Narvick Black
Land Rover Series One
Triumph Rocket 111 (sadly gone!)

Agreed - classic duff battery symptoms. If the car hasn't been used much recently it might just need a good charge, but it's probably a sign that it's on the way out. Nothing like the cold to show up a sick battery!

+1 for the battery. Mine: 2012 Golf GTI Edition 35
Family's: 2009 Freelander 2 HSE TD4 Auto, Stornoway

Yorkshire - God's County

Replaced my battery recently. It was still on the original Land Rover one so it's probably 5 or 6 years old.

Was beginning to struggle to crank on cold mornings and the interior lights dimmed/went off when cranking.

Replaced the battery and all those symptoms are now gone. Went to the Lakes last weekend and temperature display said -5 and it cranked no problem.

I fitted an Bosch S5. It has 800+ CCA so better than the one that was in there. Discovery 4 HSE - Aintree Green
Freelander 2 TD4 SE Automatic - Tonga Green
Defender XS - Tonga Green - Gone Now
Freelander 1 Td4 ES Manual - Epsom Green - Gone Now *
Freelander 1 Td4 Kalahari SE - Epsom Green - Gone Now
Freelander 1 XEi - Epsom Green - Gone Now

www.greenlandrover.uk

Agree with the others. If it was difficult last winter, OK in the warmer weather and impossible now I wouldn't even bother testing it - it's extinct!

Luckily the FL only has one battery - my old Pajeros had two!

Get a heavy-duty one - biggish diesels are hard to turn over. Glad we don't need starting handles any more! Ours - 2008 Stornoway Grey HSE Auto
Tricia's - 2006 Royal Blue Beetle Cabriolet Auto
Mine - 2014 Vespa GTS 300 Super Sport Matt Black
Ours - 2007 White Bailey Pageant Champagne

Eurocarparts has an offer on batteries at the moment. Quoted on another recent thread.

Having the same problem with mine, unfortunately replacing the battery hasn't helped.

Sometimes it will start instantly other times it will crank and die, others it will not crank at all...

Anyone have any ideas?

Dealer doesn't have any loan cars for a month, and imagine they will want to keep it over night so getting them to pick up and drop off isn't really an option.

Jon Freelander 2, 2014 Dynamic SD4 Santorini Black

And the quickest way to ruin the Starter Motor is keep trying to start it with a sluggish battery, if the battery is sluggish and starts to die don't keep trying to start it unless you want a bigger repair bill.

Having the same problem with the new battery though, problem is it doesn't happen all the time, some days it starts perfect at -5 others it doesn't start at 5.

Wonder if it could be a problem with the engine earth? Does anyone know how easy that is to change?

Jon Freelander 2, 2014 Dynamic SD4 Santorini Black

It does sound like a bad earth,im no expert but would clean and tighten the earth up,also make sure the battery connections are clean.

Try a digital voltmeter across the battery negative to a cleaned part of the gearbox casing, it will read nothing. Get another person to try starting the car whilst you are doing the voltmeter bit. If you get a reading showing then it indicates you have an earth problem. I am certain that you have two earth cables, one between the battery neg and the steel bulkhead hidden inside the plastic plenum chamber / scuttle panel, the other between the gearbox and the chassis leg. All four connections would need undoing, cleaning / derusting before rebolting up, I would use a smear of vaseline at each point to ward off water and prevent future corrosion.
Secondly there are other posts here suggesting that the standard earths are insuficcient and recommending adding another earth cable direct between the battery Neg and a starter bolt. My opinion is that this is a very sensible modification to do HOWEVER do this as well as cleaning the original earths.
Landrover install a single Red cable between the battery Pos and the starter / alternator; why they didnt copy this correct design policy on the engine earth cable seems crazy. 2010GS Auto ex Celeb, Santorini Black, 2011 facelift , spoiler, spats, mudflaps, LED footwell lamps, Witter detach,
Other cars:-
1958 & 1959 Austin J40 Pedal Cars under restoration (I make many J40 parts)
If you have an Austin J40 or Pathfinder Pedal Car looking for a new home pls PM me.
2009 Meriva

Thanks, I will give that a try. The only earth I could see is the one from the battery to the car body, I assume that's the first one you are referring to, which side is the other one, is it easily view able?

Edit: Just been out and checked, doesn't look like you can change it without removing the under body protection. Looks like I will just replace the connection from the battery to the body then do some testing if that doesn't work.

Thanks

Jon Freelander 2, 2014 Dynamic SD4 Santorini Black

Haven't been able to try the earth test yet as didn't have a spare pair of hands yesterday.

Just been out to start it now and same thing happened, press button starts to crank then fails, this time couldn't remove the key, tried it again 30 seconds later and it started no problem.

Jon Freelander 2, 2014 Dynamic SD4 Santorini Black

Try connecting a jump lead between the negative battery terminal and the engine block. This will by-pass the original earths. Quite common on a lot of cars is the 'cripmed' connection between the cable end terminals and the cable itself on both the live and earth cables. I normally remove cables and squeeze the terminals in a vice to tighten them.