@#$@# Lucas! Got stranded 80 km up West Harrison FSR

[[BlackDiamond]]

Hey All,

New to the forums, but not to the Rover world. I wanted to share you a little story.

We own a 2000 Range Rover 4.6.

A few weekends ago we (wife and I) decided to venture out for a weekend trip to Sloquet Hot Springs. We've been there a few times and always love that place.

We venture out Saturday morning and get there early afternoon (made a few key stops along the way, such as lunch at Hale Creek, etc..).

I get there, we setup camp and enjoy a sit down to chat and enjoy a drink. Few minutes later I remember that I forgot my VHF radio on and decided to go to the car to turn it off... that's when the fun began.

Click the unlock button and no response from the car (remote fob lights up fine) - walk to the car, it's locked as I imagined... put the key in the door, unlock... power door locks dont unlock.. just driver door unlocks.

Open the door - alarm goes crazy. Press remote,.. nothing, no signal from the car. Close the door, lock again manually, alarm stops.

Repeated this a couple of times, no luck, same problem over and over.... by the third time I go and try to start the car. "Engine Immobilized, press key on remote" - Press key several times, no signal at all from car.

After 20 minutes of back and forth trying this, I give up, sit down and let the car rest for about an hour. Completely stressed and not enjoying the camping trip at all at this point, just thinking: "how long will we be stranded here, without any cell signal and with noone around, 80 kms up a forest road..."

Anyways, tried again an hour later, same crap. Unplugged battery so that I could work on checking every single fuse without the horns blasting. Pull out every engine bay fuse, no problems, all ok. Swapped a few of the relays hoping that a faulty one was causing it... plugged battery back in, no luck, same exact problem.

At this point I'm thinking: "oh yea! there are more fuses in the passenger seat"... so I go open the passenger door, it's locked out. It's not unlocking itself when you unlock the driver door, and its not responding to the manual lock pin. (superlocked?)

So now I cant access half the fuses which could potentially be the problem here.

All I'm thinking at this stage is: "disconnect the ebcm" - then a little voice kept holding me back from doing this, because of horror stories I heard of ebcm's losing the pairing forever with the remote fob, and permanently immobilizing the car. So I held back, and kept going through the processes to try and get this to start.

Thankfully, the native group that runs Sloquet arrived to collect camping fees - I ask them if they have internet in their community, they say they do, I ask for a ride, they kindly give me a ride to the Tipella logging camp, where I'm able to research a bit into the issue...

I find hundreds of forums where people were talking of similar issues, I read up on all the different re-pairing options to get the fob to communicate with the car again. (EKA procedure, unplugging the receiver aerial, plug battery with the key in the ignition, change keyfob battery, etc etc...)

The guys from Tipella kindly give me a ride back to campground and promise me they will come back in the morning to check on us.

It's now 11 pm, pitch black..I go back to campground and attempt every single procedure I read online. NOTHING works....

It is now 3 am and I decide to give up and go to bed so that I can wake up early enough to start making plans on getting someone to either come pick us up or getting a ride back to civilization.

Next morning wake up, try all the processes again, nothing works. Still no response from key fob.

Last ditch effort.. I reach inside glove box, unplug all wires from eBCM, with the battery plugged. Replug all the wires back into eBCM... boom! All doors unlock!

Press keyfob and everything responds....

Put key in ignition, #@$!@# starts RIGHT UP!!

I have never packed a campground so quickly and left a place so quickly.....

It's now been 4 weeks since this incident, and it has not repeated itself since.


@$#@#@!@#@ Land Rover.... !@#@!!@ Lucas wiring!

[[BlackDiamond]]

Sorry.. I forgot to post the reason I put this on Q&A section. Does anyone here have access to Testbook? I heard there is a way to disable the immobilizer and alarm altogether for the P38's through Testbook.

I use this car primarily for camping trips and for hauling the boat, so I really dont want to get stranded with it again.

[davran]

I have read that the "superlock" feather can be disabled: is this true? Who can do it?

[[BlackDiamond]]

I have read that the "superlock" feather can be disabled: is this true? Who can do it?

I hear that too, through Testbook apparently.

In my case even without Superlock i'd still be stranded. The key is to disable the Immobilizer altogether.

From what I read on forums it's a simple fix by simply changing the "region" of the car's computer to Saudi Arabia, and the immobilizer gets disabled.

But.. for this you need the factory Testbook system.