I knew British electronics were weird, but wow!

For the last 24 hours or so, every time I walked into the driveway it sounded like the neighbor was blasting his stereo in his house. Seemed a little odd because they have a young child, but whatever. Today on my way out to get the mail I notice the stereo is louder and definitely isn't coming from the neighbors house. I walk into the side yard to investigate only to find that that my 1999 Land Rover Discovery has decided it needed some tunes. Key off, radio on full blast, radio not responsive to any controls. I was able to turn it off by turning the key on and off, but I never got volume control back. I haven't been in that thing for weeks prior to this. What a weird vehicle.

POLTERGEIST!!!!!

Crap, its doing it again! I'm off to pull fuses to the soft rock favorite-I wanna know what love is!

Your Disco misses you! Give it the love it craves.

I"m sure your neighbor with the young child loves you now!

It's not just British electrons - even German electrons get strange. My 750Li has been at the BMW dealer for 3 days while they work with BMW to try to figure out why the idrive controller spins on its own. Very freaky the first time it happened!

The manual says something to the effect of "Your Land Rover is equipped with a premium sound system to enhance your listening pleasure". Well I did catch some Mellencamp and James Taylor so maybe the Rover just knew I needed a little dose of soft rock happiness.

pigeon wrote: I"m sure your neighbor with the young child *loves* you now! It's not just British electrons - even German electrons get strange. My 750Li has been at the BMW dealer for 3 days while they work with BMW to try to figure out why the idrive controller spins on its own. Very freaky the first time it happened!

Wow-that would make me want an exorcist!

Is the battery in the Disco near dead?

Was it jumped recently? (With amperage not Bo Duke)

I have seen a radio or two puke from a low voltage spiked to 12.5v.

Prince of Darkness.. Lucas or Ozzie?

Mellencamp and James Taylor?

I think you should get it to a shrink...sounds like it's trying to take it's own life

MrJoshua wrote: Mellencamp and James Taylor...

BLEGH! Kill that car before it dooms you!

Keith wrote: Your Disco misses you! Give it the love it craves.

Am I the only one who thought Keith was implying MrJoshua listened to disco when I first read that?

Look Ma, no hands.........

"That's really weird."

That's what I would be saying if it wasn't English. But eh. When the Jaguar dealer recommended taking apart the instrument cluster on my parents 1988 XJ6 to put black electrical tape over the computer read-out, he wasn't kidding. "Bulb Failure" "Coolant Level Low" "Brake Failure" "ABS Failure". Bull E36 M3. We sold it to my electronic engineer neighbor and even he never figured out exactly what was wrong with that car.

And those goofy BMW 7 series cars! The iDrive thing is funny! My parents' BMWs would get electrical gremlins that would sort themselves out, no matter how serious, as soon as the car was within 2 miles of the dealer. Every time, without fail.

confuZion3 wrote: And those goofy BMW 7 series cars! The iDrive thing is funny! My parents' BMWs would get electrical gremlins that would sort themselves out, no matter how serious, as soon as the car was within 2 miles of the dealer. Every time, without fail.

That's why I used my handy new iPhone to video the idrive controller doing its own thing before I even made the appointment. Sure enough, after I made the appointment the car started behaving again, but it seems the dealer is trying really hard to find and fix the problem.

JmfnB wrote: Is the battery in the Disco near dead? Was it jumped recently? (With amperage not Bo Duke) I have seen a radio or two puke from a low voltage spiked to 12.5v.

Battery was very low. There is a circuit to allow radio power for "up to 20 minutes" after the ignition switch is turned off, so I am hoping a low batt and possibly a funky relay is causing the prob.

NYG95GA wrote: Prince of Darkness.. Lucas or Ozzie?

I wouldn't be surprized if they were relitives

My old Triumph GT-6 only had three fuses for the entire harness.

I recoil in fear as I try to comprehend the harness on a "modern" English lump...

On the other hand, the British-made BMC, AM only radio in ~My '69 MGB~ makes no sound , whether it's on or off.

So I would never notice if it become haunted by voo-doo electronics.

It does, however, have a small light that goes on when I turn it on. So basically, it's a very weak, eight pound interior light.

MrJoshua wrote: 1999 Land Rover Discovery

Well, see, that's your problem right there.

I had a friend with an old mid-'60s Karmann Ghia that could be driven, parked, turned off, key removed from the ignition, and the car would not stop running until you turned the radio off.

MrJoshua wrote:

JmfnB wrote: Is the battery in the Disco near dead? Was it jumped recently? (With amperage not Bo Duke) I have seen a radio or two puke from a low voltage spiked to 12.5v.

Battery was very low. There is a circuit to allow radio power for "up to 20 minutes" after the ignition switch is turned off, so I am hoping a low batt and possibly a funky relay is causing the prob.

The control is likely in a circuit board and the low voltage is not allowing the path to be followed properly.

Add a trickle charger and see if the problem occurs again.

pigeon wrote: It's not just British electrons - even German electrons get strange.

A friend's dad had a large Mercedes sedan, I dont remember what model though. The stereo/navigation system reverted to its native German and wouldn't go back. He ended up selling the car because of it.

American and '80s Japanese electronics aren't immune to gremlins either.

When I was in middle school, my dad drove a '96 Taurus wagon whos headlights would never turn off, so it would drain the battery when he parked it. IIRC, he had to go under the hood to pull a fuse to keep the lights from draining the battery.

S4 RX-7s had a lot of cold solder joints. My RX-7's horn, brake lights, wipers, clock, and warning light cluster didn't work at first (the horn and wipers were Mickey-Moused to work) until I resoldered a bunch of cold solder joints on their circuit boards.

HappyAndy wrote:

NYG95GA wrote: Prince of Darkness.. Lucas or Ozzie?

I wouldn't be surprized if they were relitives

they're both about equally coherent.

There's a brit car show called wheeler dealer - when they flipped a c4 corvette they were talking about the typical dodgy American wiring.