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jkp
Member Since: 17 Sep 2005
Location: Living among Bawbags
Posts: 4528
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| Squirty Failure and LRA pantomine |
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Went out for nice wee jaunt today, decided to head up thru' Callender, Loch Earnhead, St Fillans, Comrie over the Moors Road (hopeful of snow  ) then back home along the M9.
Only trouble is I realised my washer bottle pump had failed around 20miles into the journey. We had temps around -8degrees last night so I though it would take a while to get water thru' as I don't think the heated washers are all that great.
An hour in I had to stop and splash water over the window, as the muck was too much to see out. Called my dealer who said "Check fuse then call LR Assist"
Fuses are a joke to get to. You would need paws the size of a 4 month old bairn to get into them, and the location of the spares are nothing short of shocking!!
Decided to call LRA. could not get them on the UK number, so called Europe Assist, who passed me to the man sitting next to him for UK service. Took loads of details, and at this point was impressed with the service...someone with me in an hour....great. Decided to head for a local hotel for a spot of lunch as this was to be the rendez-vous point.....then it all went down hill...
- hotel shut for the winter
- no signal on mobile phone
- me and the wee man bursting for a whizz
- wife burting for a whizz
- no ready cash avaibable in pockets or car
- no cash machine for miles
- corner shop that would not accept switch for two packets of monster munch (pickled onion), two mars bars and a can on coke and a purple fruit shoot!!
After sitting for around 40mins..heated seats are a godsend  and getting various spurious voicemail calls about my location, all of which I could not reply too, I decided enough was enough. With the dander truley enraged, I set about the fuse box, managed to get the washer pump out eventually, sure enough it had popped. Now to get the spare. 15mins of knuckle bursting swearing later I gave up. No danger of ever getting it out. So decided to wait on the man with a plan. Had a walk about and got a signal and called the last number on my phone, who were tha appointed call out agent...."sorry sir, we are no longer coming out to you, as we could not contact your cell-phone!!" "WTF!!    " I had to call LRA if I wanted them to come out.
Back at the car, it was decision time. What can I live without to get home, which fuse would be used to replace the popped one?! Powered mirrors got the boot. Swapped fuse and off we went. Called LRA while on the move..."thank you sir for letting us know, I'll stand the technician down now"
"As far as I knew he already was!"
"Sorry, sir don't know how they got that idea"
So off I went.
My main concern over this fiasco was if it was the wife...she would have been up brown stuff creek, without a paddle. Not a very good service, but I suppose I added to it, by daring to take my D3 out into the laughable outback of Stirlingshire and district.
But when it all came down to it, the run back home thru Comrie, over the moors into Braco still has me smiling, at least I could see where I was going, which has to be a good thing 
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 29th Dec 2005 5:45 pm |
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BN
Member Since: 18 Mar 2005
Location: Here
Posts: 6463
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The D3 is just like a temperamental teenager
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| 29th Dec 2005 6:49 pm |
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simon
Member Since: 11 Jan 2005
Location: Shropshire
Posts: 18296
  
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Sorry to hear your woes... and I agree the washer systems is pants in the cold.
Only -4 here and they would not put water on the screen at all ! Have good mix of washer fluid and water in there. Maybe neat will work ?
Heated jets useless if the bottle and pipes frozen.
After all these years of cold winters and car - can someone not invent the warmed washer system ? can't be that hard.
-s
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| 29th Dec 2005 11:51 pm |
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Gareth
Site Moderator
Member Since: 07 Dec 2004
Location: Bramhall
Posts: 26701
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simon wrote:Sorry to hear your woes... and I agree the washer systems is pants in the cold.
Only -4 here and they would not put water on the screen at all ! Have good mix of washer fluid and water in there. Maybe neat will work ?
Heated jets useless if the bottle and pipes frozen.
After all these years of cold winters and car - can someone not invent the warmed washer system ? can't be that hard.
-s
Neat does work all the time! but its a bit pricey. On my old 2a, I have tie-wrapped the pipe from the tank along the heater pipes, this does work remarkably well 
Only problem is, the heater is so bad and the car is so drafty that if you are daft enough to drive it in this weather YOU will freeze before the washers
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| 30th Dec 2005 12:10 am |
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simon
Member Since: 11 Jan 2005
Location: Shropshire
Posts: 18296
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LOL
Will add more blue juice tomorrow. Pain in the neck not having a clear screen !
-s
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| 30th Dec 2005 12:14 am |
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Gareth
Site Moderator
Member Since: 07 Dec 2004
Location: Bramhall
Posts: 26701
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simon wrote:LOL
Will add more blue juice tomorrow. Pain in the neck not having a clear screen !
-s
A good trick I learnt when I worked at RAF Kinloss (North east Scotland) many winters ago, was to make sure the bottle was empty when you parked up at night, and in the morning mix up a brew of 50 -50 additive and HOT water, and only putting in a pint of the stuff. Carry the rest in the car until you run out.
Worked a treat, but a pain in the a**e in the freezing cold to keep filling it up.
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| 30th Dec 2005 12:20 am |
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Kevin
Member Since: 23 Feb 2005
Location: Poole or Somewhere at Sea
Posts: 106
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-4 C in Bournemouth this morning.
I Blew the washer pump fuse trying to get water on the screen. The pump was frozen. I battled with the fuse box after looking in the manual to find the fuse number. The hardest part was accessing the spare fuses which are located at the left hand side at the bottom of the fuse box. I had to pull the wiring off the metal fixing plate to access the fuses and then reattach.
Interestingly the blown washer pump fuse also stopped the radio from working on FM. CD's and AM were fine and it would search for stations and lock on on FM but only HISSSS at me.  Kevin
BAS TUNE
Faultmate MSV-2 MULTI VEHICLE
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| 30th Dec 2005 2:21 am |
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MVS
Member Since: 18 Jul 2005
Location: People's Republic of Yorkshire
Posts: 419
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Would tend to agree. Had same prob as the temp was down to -11 yeasterday thought bottle/pump frozen.
Tried washers today after a big top up of fluid to find it tried... then blew fuse in sympathy.
Fuse box requires a 7 yrs old's fingers,& flexibility of a Yoga instructor, plus half the wiring easeing out of the way, especially to get at the spares. (They may aswell not put any in!)
You really need a torch and some very long snipe nose pliers or most of the fuses are impossible to change. Great if you get stuck in mud/water.
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| 30th Dec 2005 3:19 pm |
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lee01277
Member Since: 06 May 2005
Location: Shed
Posts: 821
 
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Seems to be a common problem ( fuse blowing ). I guess this should be fed back into LR as common an issue ?
Never had a washer fuse blow before on any of my previous cars, but was I just lucky ???
BTW, gave up on trying to get at the spares, and went out and got a box of spares.
BTW ditto on the long nose pliers .. I was trying to rush it (the "transparant snow" was starting to fill up the door well) dropped the supplied tool into the inside of the foot well ..  ..............Somewhere in-between my old D3 and what's to come next .........
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| 30th Dec 2005 3:40 pm |
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MVS
Member Since: 18 Jul 2005
Location: People's Republic of Yorkshire
Posts: 419
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Yup managed to drop the fuse tool thingy in the bottom of the trim and couldn't get it out. Waiting for the snow to go till I try to retrieve it. So I may have another rattle, other than my teeth.
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| 30th Dec 2005 3:50 pm |
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jkp
Member Since: 17 Sep 2005
Location: Living among Bawbags
Posts: 4528
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I went out and bought spares, as the supplied spares will just be ornaments under my dash, as there is no way they will ever come out.
For a utilitarian vehicle, they don't half make it hard to do the simple 'field-maintenance'
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| 30th Dec 2005 4:01 pm |
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Gareth
Site Moderator
Member Since: 07 Dec 2004
Location: Bramhall
Posts: 26701
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Guess what, I just realised my screen washers were out on my home from work, check fuse 11 and it was blown.
Its easy to get the spare fuses out of their holders, so long as you have a head torch to see what you are doing, and a pair of very long nosed pliers. Forget the fuse tool thing its a waste of time.
Obviously this is definitly a weak point. Must make a note to get some extra 10 amp fuses, and keep pliers in car.
I will notify my dealer next visit and ask them to raise the question with LR. Maybe a stronger fuse is needed?
edit -
Sorry MVS et al, did not read the full thread, not trying to steal your thunder
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| 30th Dec 2005 5:19 pm |
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BN
Member Since: 18 Mar 2005
Location: Here
Posts: 6463
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I have two more little quirks with the D3 and snow. A great pile of snow was on the roof yesterday and not accessable, so off I drove. When I braked the whole lot dumped itself onto the windscreen wipers and stopped them dead.
One more is that snow had built up on the rear bumper and frozen, so I could not drop the tailgate. Could not get the frozen snow off, so a hairdryer had to be used to get into the back.
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| 30th Dec 2005 6:06 pm |
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simon
Member Since: 11 Jan 2005
Location: Shropshire
Posts: 18296
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BN wrote:I have two more little quirks with the D3 and snow. A great pile of snow was on the roof yesterday and not accessable, so off I drove. When I braked the whole lot dumped itself onto the windscreen wipers and stopped them dead.
Happens on any vehicle not just a D3 Brian
One more is that snow had built up on the rear bumper and frozen, so I could not drop the tailgate. Could not get the frozen snow off, so a hairdryer had to be used to get into the back.
Freelander is also crap as the glass freezes on the tail gate and you cannot get the de-icer out !!
-s
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| 30th Dec 2005 8:23 pm |
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Robbie
Member Since: 05 Feb 2006
Location: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Posts: 17932
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Guess what, picked up my D3 yesterday and it already had a blown washer fuse. So much for the 'service' and 'inspection' that the car had been through!
So the deal is still to replace the 10A with a 15A?
Sounds like my Grandfather's logic - and he did set fire to his car.
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| 12th Feb 2006 10:29 am |
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