Exploding Battery

Terrible smell whilst driving, then the window on the passenger side misted up. We stopped immediately at a service station on motorway. On opening the bonnet the battery was smoking and leaking sulphuric acid (it had exploded). Phoned Land Rover assistance and waited 2 hours for a breakdown truck, who took it to the garage in Lisbon where they assured us there WOULD be a spare battery to replace it with. Another hour later a taxi arrived for us and took us to the garage, who then told us they didn’t have a battery! They told us that the garage which did have a battery was at the other side of Lisbon, but would be shut in 45 minutes and therefore we would have to wait till tomorrow morning, despite us offering to collect it in the taxi which we had. Therefore we had to wait for another taxi to take us to the airport to collect a hire car and return to the hotel, which involved a journey of 200km, the petrol and toll fees.

Returned to the dealership the next day, waited al morning for the battery to arrive, they then washed off the acid, fitted the battery, then got all of the warning lights up, so they then went to lunch!, (I had to wait longer), when they came back, I waited there all day whilst they tried to fix the problem, realised they could not, so had to arrange another taxi and hire car to drive back the 200km. So I drove there, waited all day only to return at 23:00 no better off.

Car had to stay in Portugal and we returned to Spain, called Land Rover Customer services every day for 3 days and they kept promising that the manager will call me back, waited until Wednesday when he eventually did, he seamed very please to tell me that the battery exploding was all my fault because I washed the engine off! (I never had or did) and the repair will not be covered under warranty because it was my entire fault! I should also return the loan car straight away because the fault was mine and they will not pay for a car for me?

Still waiting for the return of my car 3 weeks later, but because of Land Rovers bad treatment and the catalogue of problems with this car I am now pushing Land Rover for a full refund because the Land Rover Discovery 3 2.7 V6 SE is not a reliable car or of merchantable quality.

The question is, how can a battery exploding not be a warranty item, even if the engine has been washed (which it was not)?

Comments:

Bullshit

That is utter bullshit, washing an engine off will not make the battery explode, I would suggest that you ask Land Rover for a full refund, however there attitude does not surprise me, i have a friend with a similar experience of Land Rover not wanting honour their warranty obligations.

Keep out of water then!

My god I thought these 4x4's could go under water up to bonnet level with a snorkel.... obviously not anymore.

Good Point!

Thats a good point, this is not a good reason to not uphold a warranty claim, I am pressing for a refund, Land Rover is supposed to be a vehicle for all terrains and weather!

Land rover products are designed to be imersed in

Batterys explode when the hydrogen gas generated inside under normal charging gets ingnited. This can be done during jump starting when the leads are taken off the wrong way road I,e the assist battery should be taken off first (negative lead) followed by the jumped battery negative lead then the same with the positives Its basically a spark thats caused it The only other time i have come across is on heavy plant where a serious short has occured across the battery (usually a foreign netalic object like a pry bar) causing rappid gassing and overheating of the battery and boiling of the acid Its sounds like poss the charging circuit might have been too high causing excess gassing followed by a bad connection on the battery igniting the gas but either way, i fail to see how that is your fault. As for washing the engine, since when has that ever caused a short circuit after the event? Land rover products are designed to be imersed in water, even salt water which is highly conductive I would pursue this through LRO mag

that’s what I argued with Land Rover for so long

Thanks, that’s what I argued with Land Rover for so long, they even told me the same problem broke the gearbox module. If you click on this link you will be able to see all of the correspondence that I subsequently had with Land Rover. http://www.landroverhell.com/article/2236/reply-from-land-rover

Alternator Regulator

Mate i feel for ya!! However before you get the car back make sure they check the Alternator regulator or get the alternator checked. If the regulator has failed it will over charge the Battery causing it to blow up as mantioned in your description. J

Battery Failure

My 2016 Discovery LR battery just failed. Nothing, completely dead!!! Everything was off, radio, A/C, and lights. Dont understand how a 6months old vehicle with less than 7,000 miles battery just fails. Called dealer, but they have not returned the numerous phone messages.

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