Battery Management System software upgrade

As some of you will know I go away from home for long periods and have been leaving my car with a solar powered trickle charger plugged into the boot socket. Recently my father noticed that the dashboard red light for the alarm system was not flashing and although he was able to unlock the car he couldn't relock it. He called out LRA and they exchanged the battery under warranty as it is the 2nd time it has completely died, but last time it could be resurrected, this time it couldn't. The LRE technician asked my father if the car had been recently service and my father found the service book and told it it had been service in September. I know that I had had a battery condition monitor software upgrade done as my car is one of the first customer cars off the production line and according to the LRA man I am now wasting my time plugging in the solar panel as since the upgrade and on all new Evoques since mid 2012 the rear socket now gets switched off with all the others as part of the battery preserving cure.
I really would love to know what LR intends to do as I rely on that charger so I don't have to get inLRA to bring my car back to life. Looks more and more like my next car will not be a Land Rover, simply because I have to leave my wide beamed cars out on the drive and LR cannot get battery life right. I never had battery issues with any previous modern Land Rover except the Evoque and now I cannot even use an environmentally friendly solar trickle charger to keep the battery topped up. Looks more and more like a narrow Mini or Audi will be replacing my fat Evoque and not another Evoque. Freelander2 is way too fat to get into my garage and Defender is too high!

I have to agree with you, I have not even picked my Evoque up as yet, but this does appear to be a major failing of the Evoque.on this and other forums it is constantly being mentioned.
It's time LR treated its customers with respect, it's obvious that the battery is part of the problem as is the software.

The battery does not appear to be robust enough for what's asked of it, and this is exacerbated by the software issue.

What would be the cost to LR to fit a better battery one capable of handling the needs of the Evoque, I suggest it would be minimal to fit on the production line and only slightly more costly for a recall of the other already made Evoques.

But for customer peace of mind and money saved in less LRA callouts it's got to be worth it, instead of trying to firefight an obvious fault and deal with them as they are reported.

Tell me which is the more important issue here.

A random alarm fault or a car which keeps killing its batteries?

In my opinion the battery issue is the more important one, you cannot use the car with a dead or dying battery.

Now JLR have seen it fit to follow up big style a random alarm issue.

I doubt that that problem will lose JLR, RRE customers, but the battery problem may well do.

Should they be installing these Absorbed Glass Matt AGM batteries instead or should they be paying more attention to the Forum chatter and the frustrated owners? Maybe both.

Once again we know JLR monitor these forums, maybe this is one for Liam and JLR to get proactive with.

Do we wait for JLR to respond or get busy e-mailing them?

One of the reasons I traded in my FFRR for the Evoque was that I was fed up with needing to keep it on a trickle charger.

I had several flat battery events as the FFRR keeps the electrical systems alive for several minutes every time the car is unlocked or a door is opened. The new FFRR has two batteries to solve that very issue, one for the engine and one for all the other systems.

I thought Land Rover had solved the problem with the Freelander and Evoque. I have not had an issue yet, but then the Evoque and the Freelander is used at least once a week.

Given Tim's posting, it's clear now why the rear socket no longer works after a few minutes when I'm using the air compressor for my tyres. It now means I have to switch the engine back on. So much for the environment.... ! It worked fine up until the battery update.

(16-02-2013 02:54pm)XFullFatTim Wrote:  As some of you will know I go away from home for long periods and have been leaving my car with a solar powered trickle charger plugged into the boot socket. Recently my father noticed that the dashboard red light for the alarm system was not flashing and although he was able to unlock the car he couldn't relock it. He called out LRA and they exchanged the battery under warranty as it is the 2nd time it has completely died, but last time it could be resurrected, this time it couldn't. The LRE technician asked my father if the car had been recently service and my father found the service book and told it it had been service in September. I know that I had had a battery condition monitor software upgrade done as my car is one of the first customer cars off the production line and according to the LRA man I am now wasting my time plugging in the solar panel as since the upgrade and on all new Evoques since mid 2012 the rear socket now gets switched off with all the others as part of the battery preserving cure.
I really would love to know what LR intends to do as I rely on that charger so I don't have to get inLRA to bring my car back to life. Looks more and more like my next car will not be a Land Rover, simply because I have to leave my wide beamed cars out on the drive and LR cannot get battery life right. I never had battery issues with any previous modern Land Rover except the Evoque and now I cannot even use an environmentally friendly solar trickle charger to keep the battery topped up. Looks more and more like a narrow Mini or Audi will be replacing my fat Evoque and not another Evoque. Freelander2 is way too fat to get into my garage and Defender is too high!

Why not connect a CTek charger directly under the bonnet if you are charging at home? This comes with an intermediate plug and socket, so you can connect the female part permanently, and plug the charger in as required. You can still close the bonnet and lock the car even with the charger coupled, and I've left the car unused and unattended for up too eight weeks like this. I leave two cars on charge, but only one fits in the garage, so the Evoque sits outside with the mains cable passed under the door. I leave the small charger, which is water resistant,
outside with a Tupperware box secured over it with Ty-Raps.

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(16-02-2013 09:16pm)Claud Wrote:  The new FFRR has two batteries to solve that very issue, one for the engine and one for all the other systems.

My SL 500 has the same thing, but I still have to trickle charge the battery if I leave the car unattended for long periods (see my reply to Tim above). Although the starting battery doesn't flatten, so the car still starts, it only operates restricted electrical systems until you give it a good run, which is inconvenient. Furthermore, if you leave it long enough, the auxiliary battery flattens completely, which is, of course, bad for that battery regardless of whether the car starts or not with the other one. There just seems to be too much going on electronically to allow for long periods without charging in modern cars!

My X3 will drain its battery after 2 weeks of non use due to all the electrickery in it. However, my battery is still the original one from 2004, still has its 'magic eye' green, and will happily start the car even after being cold soaked.

The reason beng that I have a decent battery monitor/conditioner connected whenever the car is locked up in the garage, and I've got into the habit of connecting it up after putting the car away.

I intend to do the same with the Evoque but I really do feel it shouldn't be required in this day'n'age due to the improvements in battery technology. I am somewhat worried about the sheer quantity of software bugs and glitches in the car, some just annoying (seat not comfort retracting if you don't manually put the car in Park before switching off) to down-right worrying with the car going into limp/restricted mode if the battery appears to be low.

Just before placing my order I spoke with the service manager at the LR dealership about their philosophy re. Software updates, and they stated quite categorically that updates would only be applied either on recall, or if a specific problem was highlighted, known to be fixed by software. Surely it's in the best interest to ensure all cars are on the same standard software level? But I know BMW won't do this either, so LR are no better.

<sigh> hope I avoid these issues when mine is delivered in March but I know how my luck works......

There was an external socket that fitted at the back of the bonnet, you could get that fitted Tim, or I would be inclined to make my own connector to the battery to plug in the trickle charger. I don't think this is really anything different to other cars, they all have to run alarms which will drain the battery, although the standing current of the Evoque is a little high.

This seems to be sort of the norm for CANBUS system. I've two previous CANBUS rides: 2005 Corvette and a 2006 K1200R BMW bike (still have the bike). They're both happier on a trickle charger. (But I have a charger designed for CANBUS made by BMW that I may try). However, after year 2005, GM sorted the system and dead batteries were rare. So... it can be sorted. Curious to see how my Evoque does.

Thing is I've owned 4 previous "modern" Land Rovers, 2 (2003 and 2010MY) x FFRR and 2 (2005 & 2007MY) x RRS and I never even had to plug in any sort of charger before I went away, even in the coldest winters they never failed to start after 3 months of no use, now even in the summer the Evoque
is dead after a month. This is not good for security as my Trakker also goes flat. So do I sue LR if my car is stolen from the drive and the trakker doesn't operate because LR cannot get the battery charging/ monitoring right? I exect modern cars to have modern systems, I also expect them to have batteries that can last at least as long as the older style. We are not progressing here, we are going backwards and it is very annoying.