Am I being ripped off???

[cotefarmboy]

Took the Disco in for a new centre section exhaust this morning, should have been routine. However, the car stalled at some traffic lights in the town centre and would not re-start, after several attempts it finally turned over and started but the handbrake then went wrong, the lever sprang up and wouldn't lock down. Limped into the garage assuming I had jammed it etc.

They did the exhaust and replaced the battery which I assumed to be the cause as it has been struggling to turn the engine over in recent days. Then they stripped the handbrake thinking the cable had gone. Just got a call from them saying the starter motor was knackered hence it not starting, I was surprised and asked them to double check. Then they called back to say that the problem was actually a bad earth and the car was earthing via the handbrake cable which had melted!

They are not LR specialists and the bill is rising (exhaust, battery, handbrake cable lots of labour and maybe a new starter). Does this earth issue sound plausible??

Andy

<<1993>>

[Range Rover Blues]

The handbrake cable thingy has happened before to people I know, I'm a bit dubous about the costs of chasing a fault this way though. Did anyone recommend the garage to you, do you use them a lot and is it the same mechanic you always see?

Sounds to me like they don't know what they are doing.

[rollazuki]

all sounds plausible to me, bad vehicle engine earth will ground out thru handbrake cable. excess current thru poor connection can kill starter motor, its all possible.
 

[cotefarmboy]

I only use the place for tyres and exhausts normally but as it conked out on the ramp I had little option but to let them investigate.

[Guardian.]

one of my iveco vans did exactly that, earthed through handbrake, took ages to find out what the electrical fault was.

[thermidorthelobster]

Well, the exhaust was what you took it in there for, so I think that's fair game.  Earthing through the handbrake is totally plausible and you'd need a new handbrake cable to fix that.  In doing this you may have shorted the battery (hence needing a new one) but it may have survived.  You shouldn't need a new starter motor.

[John T]

Think youself lucky it's not a TD5, I've just got a price for a handbrake cable for mine.... Over £90  :shock:

[cotefarmboy]

All sorted now  :)

Didn't need a starter in the end thankfully. Turns out that there was no earth strap at all to the engine, lucky it didn't go up in smoke really. Starts now on the first flick of the key.

[landandy]

I had same prob. Fixed it my self. Striped out all cent of disco down to gearbok all handbreak only to find i needed a 13 mm spanner for a earth which goes from chassie to engine. I am told its a comon prob. :(

[hobbit]

This goes to show again, a bad starter can be as simple as a broken earth cable, if I have this problem alway the first thing I try is a jump cable straight to the engine from the battery

nine times out of ten it dont solve the problem

At least you got it sorted now