After having the Discovery three days, we came out from a restaurant and it wouldn’t start on the first two tries. It turned over very slowly and if I kept the starter engaged it finally fired up. Felt like a dead battery. Drove home, connected the ScanGauge and saw the alternator was putting out around 13.8 amps (alternator OK). Quick look at the battery and it looked pretty old, so trip to the local parts store for a new gel type battery, install, clean up and tighten all connectors……same problem. Must be the starter right?
I decided to slow down a bit and stop throwing parts at the problem without more troubleshooting. So, the next day I took the truck to a local Advance Auto Parts and had them connect their fancy gauge to the battery to check the charging and starting system. No issues found, including with the starter which was not pulling too many amps. Now I’m stumped.
Time to get some help. I called Sam, who owns the dealership where I purchased the Disco and explained the situation. He suggested jumping the battery ground directly to the engine, and if that didn’t work to bring it in. Jumping the battery didn’t improve the starting, so I took it over to Sam’s shop. He put it on his diagnostic tool, and again, no problem was found. He put the truck on the lift to check the connections and saw that the starter was coated with oil from the previously leaking rear main seal and that could be fouling the starter. Changing the starter seemed like the best course of action, so he ordered one up and a couple of hours later, with a new starter, I had a truck with no starting issues.
On the list to fix from the PPI was the horn. I wasn’t too worried about this as it is a simple circuit. First thing to check was the fuse, and I was smiling when I found it blown. Replaced the fuse and told my wife I had fixed the horn. As we are pulling out of the driveway, the horn goes off, and then again when we go over any bumps. Pulled the fuse, checked the horn buttons and realized that one of them didn’t have a spring so it was making contact randomly and setting off the horn.
Here are some other items off my checklist:
