Battery Life

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Lgibson

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Much to my surprise our new 2015 came with the Group 49. It was the Exide Edge AGM but made in Poland. We are under warranty but I did not like the curvy shape of the top area on the Interstate the dealer is using. Batteries Plus had the Duracell AGM group 49 exact fit for $170 online/pick up in store. Did the Battery Management calibration with my IIDTool and we're good to go.
I regard the stealership like I do the hospital...a good place to avoid if at all possible, particularly in a third-world city like El Paso!
 

TLB

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That's great service TLB. I really like the Schumacher battery charger / conditioner. I have it hooked up to the car right now (leaving early tomorrow for a 10-day vacation with the family), and I alternate it about every month or two between main and auxiliary battery - I have a Traxide battery isolator as well and my auxiliary battery is an Optima Yellow Top that provides juice to a number of accessories such as dash cam, refrigerator, etc. Having said that, my daily work commute is about 2 hours round trip, often with lots of additional driving between that round trip. My batteries have plenty of time to recharge day in, day out, despite our lazy "intelligent" alternator. Unless one of my batteries is going bad, they are always at or near 100% capacity when I top them up with the Shumacher. The trickle charge when I go on extended trips or vacations is the most useful feature for me. It's cheap enough and well made, I recommend it to keep your new battery conditioned, it should definitely help extending its life a few extra months.

Umberto,
How often do you have to connect your battery to your charger to keep it at 100%?.
I think my alternator or something else is giving up. I thought my problem was short daily trips , but....
2 days ago I charged my battery to 100% capacity. Yesterday went for a 130 miles trip ( highway driving). I was curious how the battery was doing and check it this morning. Well, nothing good. My charger showed me 12.4V and 68% capacity.
I will be calling my LR shop tomorrow.
I do not have any accessories except dash cam but it is on a switch wire which provides power for several minutes after you turn ignition off.
Looks to me like an alternator. Any suggestions ? BTW my battery is just few months old.
 
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[email protected]

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Umberto,
How often do you have to connect your battery to your charger to keep it at 100%?.
I think my alternator or something else is giving up. I thought my problem was short daily trips , but....
2 days ago I charged my battery to 100% capacity. Yesterday went for a 130 miles trip ( highway driving). I was curious how the battery was doing and check it this morning. Well, nothing good. My charger showed me 12.4V and 68% capacity.
I will be calling my LR shop tomorrow.
I do not have any accessories except dash cam but it is on a switch wire which provides power for several minutes after you turn ignition off.
Looks to me like an alternator. Any suggestions ? BTW my battery is just few months old.
It is the alternator going out. Change it soon. It is probably the rectifior within the alternator.
 

TCM75

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+1 for the XP-10

Also my rule of thumb for automotive batteries is a 5-years life-span. If you rely on the LR4 as your daily driver, I would change on your own-terms rather than the battery's.
 

Surfrider77

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+1 for the XP-10

Also my rule of thumb for automotive batteries is a 5-years life-span. If you rely on the LR4 as your daily driver, I would change on your own-terms rather than the battery's.

I doubt any of these LR4s are seeing anywhere near 5 year battery life. Most on this forum are reporting 2-3 years tops. My truck is a 2013 and I have had 2 replacement batteries already (OEM replaced under warranty from LR).
 

TCM75

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Well that was a timely post...I just returned from the airport yesterday to find the "Low Battery - Please Start Vehicle message". Out came the XP-10 and proceeded on my way within a couple minutes (thinking it should be standard issue, lol).

So we can add my battery to the data set with a 31 month lifespan.

Looks like I need to readjust my rule of thumb for the LR4 for a preventive battery change...or just take care of the XP-10.
 

TLB

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I had my LR4 at an independent land rover shop. They tested everything and did not find anything wrong with the alternator or the battery. I never got low battery warning so I will keep an eye on my battery and charge it periodically.
On average the battery in my LR4 last for me for about 1.5 years , ( hot Arizona climate, daily city commute, off roading, some higway driving from time to time., AC always on, ).
Thank you "smart, inteligent alternator".
 

Popham

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First, thanks for a great post. One of the better ones on LR4 charging systems.

Which brings up the issue of RV/camper (house) batteries. I would think most keep their camper batteries charged to optimal levels while at home and then connect the "house" battery to the engine battery (charging system) thru the "tow package" connector for the camping trip/drive to campsite. Given the charging profile of the LR4 this appears to be a bad choice unless the RV/house battery is isolated at the higher state of charge. The LR4 charging system would actually bring the house battery down to the 12.25-12.30v resting state.

Better to isolate the LR4 completely from other battery systems. Looks like I have some IID tool work in my future.

You're correct. The smart Traxide isolator does indeed keep them connected, resulting in a low state of charge (12.3-12.4) in both. When I installed the Traxide I expected to see a low starting battery, but a high 2nd battery being held in reserve. But, the Traxide just dumped any extra voltage from the 2nd back to the starting battery, so they'd both draw down.

But not sure that the solution is to isolate them... the problem is that the charging system never really pushes out enough power to get either battery back up to a full state. They get a nominal 12.7 float that you see right after driving, but quickly drop to a core resting state of about 12.4, which is where they generally live.

I think its a design point issue that Rover thought through (sacrifice battery life for fuel mileage). And, it's generally not an issue for 99% of on-road, mall-going users. It's only when you need the extra amperage when remote camping or running accessories like winches, refrigerators, etc. So we'll just continue to see owners chase the LR4 weak charging profile in posts about eating batteries in 2-3 years instead of the normal 4-5. And, as a note, there is no magic battery brand or type that will fix it. Dealers will also tell you the system is working great even when you get the "low battery" dash warning when parked listening to the radio with a 2 year old battery. There's just not enough juice being fed to the battery.

For the off-road remote campers, or owners who want 4-5 years from their batteries, older owners have learned to add back the missing power. They either connect chargers once a month or, like me, keep a small solar panel setup on the roof to bring the batteries up to above where the LR4 likes to keep them.
 

TCM75

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More follow up...

On Monday I made an appointment at the dealer to check out/replace the battery. I would have done it myself but the passenger-side headlight washer has fallen in the bumper (again!) so they can deal with that. They couldn't take me until Thursday so my evening ritual is now to put a battery tender on when done for the day. To my surprise (mainly because it's a battery tender jr.), the tender showed a green LED and it seemed to start strong enough.

I know it has been said before, but lower voltage does some funny things to these vehicles. My auto-up function on the driver window switch does not work, but all others are unaffected. Maybe once or twice my folding mirrors did not unfold when I unlocked the vehicle. Also some funny business with the radio.

I don't have a IID tool but I do have an Autel OBD2 scanner so I ran a diagnostic test yesterday to see if it could find anything. Interestingly enough, even though I have no CEL light on the scanner was showing faults on about 1/3 of the modules...and there are lots of modules; they number in the 20s. When I went deeper it said "intermittent connection".

Lastly, I find it incredibly frustrating that car Companies don't care to share the information that is readily available...and the LR is especially bad at this. Rules to check the oil, rules to see tire pressure, unable to see system voltage, etc...

Thanks for the tip, Popham, but since I don't have a rack and am in the northeast, my option will be the periodic charge. For a few bucks I am going to replace my driver-side 12V outlet with this (see link) out to keep tabs on the system and then determine the threshold voltage to let me know when to charge.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B..._title_dp_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A24H22ZFXIDSU7
 

Frank8

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So your folding mirrors didn’t go out? I just had this happen yesterday for first time. I stopped engine, opened and shut door and the went out normally on restart.

Is the mirror failure a warning sign of something?
 

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