Batteries are on borrowed time after 4 years. Starter batteries loose roughly 20% of their capacity a year for heavy loads. Lead acid batteries have a longer life if keep charged. If it's unused charge it once a month with a Victron charger or similar. Freelanders have a lot of electronics so it doesn't take long to reduce a battery to it's knees. One should have a 85ah 800 CCA battery in the car. 30 minutes fiddling with the hi-fi & you will get a low battery warning. Procrastination, mankind's greatest labour saving device!

Acoustic insulation ARB TPMS 3xARB air compressors After cooler Air tank On-board OCD pressure air/water cleaning Additional 50L fuel Carpet in doors ABE 2x1kg Waeco 28L modified fridge Battery 4x26ah Solar 120w Victron MPPT 100/20 DC-DC 18amps 175amp jumper plug Awning 6x255/60R18

As Lightwater says, batteries are on borrowed time after a few years, although there are ones that will do longer for some unknown reason. Just replaced my five year old Varta F18 battery with the same. (Now Sold). 2008 Freelander 2 (Nazca Sand) SE TD4 Auto. Statutory write off & on WOVR for hail damage but still road legal.
171037Km as of 09/05/22
Superchips Bluefin Flash
Nanocom Evo II (also sold)

I still have the Land Rover (Exide) battery, use it for testing things. Have lent it & a spare set of jumper leads to a neighbour who was having problems starting his car. Later we found 1 cell had died.

Its Murphy's Law that the battery will fail at the worst possible time. A few years ago a neighbour was in a frantic state. They came to me knowing I had jumper leads. Got the car going so they could get up to the hospital so she could give birth!

£150 amortised over 4 years. £37.50 per year. Is it really worth the stuffing around & inconvenience? I doubt it! & Hell will look like a better option when you can't get to a hospital in time! Procrastination, mankind's greatest labour saving device!

Acoustic insulation ARB TPMS 3xARB air compressors After cooler Air tank On-board OCD pressure air/water cleaning Additional 50L fuel Carpet in doors ABE 2x1kg Waeco 28L modified fridge Battery 4x26ah Solar 120w Victron MPPT 100/20 DC-DC 18amps 175amp jumper plug Awning 6x255/60R18

Baker69 wrote:

Worth considering Jules if I end up buying a new battery myself.

Are these better than the Kwik Fit batteries they sell for this model at £145 fitted?

Generally most batteries are similar and have the same construction for their type, the differnce between a 1year warranty and a 4year warranty is zero except for the price, the difference in cost is just the insurance cost to the supplier or manufacturer should it fail during warranty, even then in is not always a 1 for 1 replcement, with a 4 year warranty and a failure after 2 years you may have to pay 50% of the cost or receive a battery with a 2 year warranty. Regarding Kwik Fit, if they are just changing the battery for £150 then not worth it, if they are resetting all the windows, sunroof and any other settings lost then possibly ok, but I wouldn't hold my breath they get it right. I used a small 12v battery attached by a couple of lengths of wire to the battery cables to retain the settings during the change over.
To check for a dead battery, turn on the headlights and check the battery holds 12.5v over 5 mins, if its dead it will drop to 12v or less. my PC is slightly to the right of Genghis
2012 HSE SD4 In Orkney Grey now gone, best car ever.

Last edited by Dartman the one on 15th Jun 2020 11:41 am. Edited 1 time in total

I had a battery fitted at Kwik Fit last year and didn’t lose any settings on the car. I think they sort of piggy back the existing battery while fitting the new one so the vehicle is never totally without a battery so you don’t lose any settings that way.

Hi all.... sounds about right. I had the original battery on my Nov '14 Metropolis die on me last year at 4.5 years old. Fitted a new Varta (many thanks to others on this forum for that advice - great battery). Had no issues with data or settings loss either.
All the best... get a new battery and enjoy one of the best cars you'll ever drive. Smooth, quick, very versatile and very reliable.  I've decided to stop being a good example and will now just be a terrible warning.....
2008 TD4HSE - gone but much loved.
2014MY SD4 Metropolis - very much loved.

Hi glassman,

If you fitted the Vargas battery yourself how did you not lose any settings?

I replaced the battery myself, there is note in one of the threads on the subject. The only thing that needed fixing was the clock moved forward. Procrastination, mankind's greatest labour saving device!

Acoustic insulation ARB TPMS 3xARB air compressors After cooler Air tank On-board OCD pressure air/water cleaning Additional 50L fuel Carpet in doors ABE 2x1kg Waeco 28L modified fridge Battery 4x26ah Solar 120w Victron MPPT 100/20 DC-DC 18amps 175amp jumper plug Awning 6x255/60R18

Baker69 wrote:

Hi glassman,

If you fitted the Vargas battery yourself how did you not lose any settings?

Thanks guys for all of your replies and input to date.

The outcome of my phone call to the car sales place earlier this morning is that they put me on to the warranty company who have arranged for it to be checked over at a garage fairly near to where I live. As they do not know at this point whether it is a battery issue, charging issue or another cause they need the garage to carry out a diagnostic in order to establish the exact problem. If it is anything other than the battery they will authorise the repair under warranty with this garage, but if it is the battery they need to contact the car sales for them to authorise the fitting of a new one.

I’ve just got to hope it starts tomorrow morning, it only just about started today!

A lot of hassle, if I knew 100% that it was the battery I would just go and buy one I think, but at least something is being done.

jules wrote:

At least you dont an expensive AGM battery as the SD4 auto doesnt have stop/start. The battery is big and heavy though but apart from that its not difficult to fit and usually the only thing needing to be reset is the electric windows IIRC.

I had to buy a new battery for my 2014 auto last year. Just so you know the cost of these things; I got a Varta F19 battery from Tayna for £95

Baker69 wrote:

Hi glassman,

If you fitted the Vargas battery yourself how did you not lose any settings?

Baker69 wrote:

jules wrote:

At least you dont an expensive AGM battery as the SD4 auto doesnt have stop/start. The battery is big and heavy though but apart from that its not difficult to fit and usually the only thing needing to be reset is the electric windows IIRC.

I had to buy a new battery for my 2014 auto last year. Just so you know the cost of these things; I got a Varta F19 battery from Tayna for £95

Hi Jules,

Forgive my ignorance, but what needs to be re set on the electric windows?

Kwikfit changed my battery last November on my 2014 FL2. Everything went smoothly and did not have to reset anything.

Although my battery did not let me down, I had started to experience random 'phantom' faults on start up, and 'Low Battery' warnings. (as the weather got colder)

As they were all cleared by switching off/on, I took it that they were caused by low voltage during the 'ramp up' of the various control systems.

It might be my imagination, but I thought that the Battery Management System' took a few days to learn the capacity of the new battery, and adjust the 'Low Battery' warnings. FL2 XS SD4 Auto 2010 2012-2017 (21k - 91k miles) (MY2011)
FL2 Metropolis SD4 Auto 2014 2017- (16k - 76k+ miles) (MY2015)