babyRR.com - The Range Rover Evoque Forum

Anyone any clue what might have happened?

Day 8 of enjoying my new Dynamic and admittedly after a very cold night in the French Alps, the ventilation system, AC, heated seats, front and rear window heaters all refused to function.

A call to LR assistance ended after two calls with a suggestion to change a fuse (LR won't come out to a call like this in France and even suggested I drive it to the nearest dealership). However, given I was skiing I decided to tackle the issue after I'd finished for the day.

Couldn't find a single fuse that controlled all the items, but upon starting the car everything was ok, and has been since.

Two questions

1. Anyone any clue why? if it was simply not enough battery power, then I'd expect LR to know about it and to have told so.
2. Assuming that if I'd had a real problem they would have come out, I was a little annoyed to be told I should take the car to the nearest dealership

Don't know for sure but this group of closely related functions is probably managed by a single control unit meaning power converter, microprocessor and interface electronics to switch relays, sense temperatures and the like.

Sounds like this has failed to start correctly, maybe related to the cold and low battery voltage.

If it happens again, power down, wait a few seconds and restart. If the problem persists, the control unit probably needs replacing or maybe the battery.

As for LR's response, important to know the response people - subcontracted out in all probability - know little and care less. They will certainly have little technical knowledge and will happily fob you off with some wild guess so that they can get back to Facebook.

It's also like LR installed a Windows OS in the cars........... Perform a Cnrl/Alt/Del reboot and it all starts up fine, it's the well known cure for 99% of electronics faults with all Land Rover products except Defenders.............. As they don't have any of these sophisticated hitech systems!

Well, I'm used to telling folk at work to CTRL ALT DEL but my colleagues will enjoy my discomfort this time around.

I'll just need to keep a close eye on it. Didn't expect this from a new car though. Hope I haven't got a lemon.

Thanks for the advice


Ian

Part of the problem with designing electronics to work in cars (been there, done that) is maintaining a stable power supply for the electronics to run. You can't just connect it to the battery and hope for the best.

When the battery is cold cranking the engine, the current draw is enormous and the voltage dips, especially in cold conditions. In the control units, a circuit called a switching regulator generates the voltages required and is intended to be immune to - or at least able to compensate for - the dipping supply voltage. If the supply voltage running the electronics (typically 3.3 or 5v) cannot be maintained, all bets are off and you'll get things like logic lockups which are cured by resetting the thing.

It sounds like this has happened to you. As I say, if it's a one-off, put it down to just that but if it happens often, then they should take a look, starting with testing the battery and its state of charge. There was a problem in early Evoques with the battery not charging correctly and the car was permanently running on a partially charged battery which lead to premature failure.