Harpic

A strange tale

A Friend of mine has a Disco 3,
Over the new year a neighbour told her a tail light was out
She called in at a local car spares shop (usually reliable)
Said something like
That is my Landover, I need a tail light bulb.
He sold her a bulb
When she got home she changed the bulb
Next day, having driven for about 5 miles the engine died, would not restart
Called Landover. they sent someone out, and got the car started.
After a further 2 or three miles the engine stuttered and stopped,
all lights flashed on dashboard.then message DO NOT DRIVE THE VEHICLE
Landover came and towed it in and gave her a Jag/Daimler Sovereign as a
courtesy car (WOW)
[She thought it was much too big, especially too long]
Landover brought the car back after two days.

They asked if she had changed a bulb, she admitted it,
they said it was the wrong type of bulb and was the cause of all the
software problems on the car.

They had replaced the bulb and reset the software. All now seems OK

She went back to the car spares place in Crosspool, Sheffield and told them
of the problem.
They said the bulb was the correct one as listed in their book. and showed
no further interest.
The shop is now off the xmas card list

Does the LR explanation stand up, or are they spinning a line?

If its true then all should beware
If its unlikely then there could still be a gremlin lurking.



TIA

Gerry

Nigel Hewitt

Harpic <gerrybmail-camperman@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

> Does the LR explanation stand up, or are they spinning a line?

That a bulb causes software problems?
Yeah We can buy that. Lot's of us have had worse problems.

That they actually worked out what a software problem was in only two days?
Your pulling my leg now aren't you?

nigelH

Marc Draper

>Does the LR explanation stand up, or are they spinning a line?
>
>If its true then all should beware
>If its unlikely then there could still be a gremlin lurking.
>
>
>
>TIA
>
>Gerry



If you think about it is a pretty strange thing for LR to guess at "
have you changed a bulb?". So they should be telling the truth.

But at the end of the day it is under warranty !
--
Marc Draper

Steve Taylor

Harpic wrote:

> They asked if she had changed a bulb, she admitted it,
> they said it was the wrong type of bulb and was the cause of all the
> software problems on the car.
>

It might well be true, its appalling software design, but its the sort
of thing that's happening now they have all sorts of auto-diagnostics.
The "wrong" bulb might have the wrong cold resistance or something, so
when the car checks the bulbs are OK, it freaks out.

Steve

Austin Shackles

On or around Wed, 11 Jan 2006 15:57:05 +0000 (UTC), "Harpic"
<gerrybmail-camperman@yahoo.co.uk> enlightened us thusly:

>A strange tale
>
>They asked if she had changed a bulb, she admitted it,
>they said it was the wrong type of bulb and was the cause of all the
>software problems on the car.
>
>They had replaced the bulb and reset the software. All now seems OK
>
>She went back to the car spares place in Crosspool, Sheffield and told them
>of the problem.
>They said the bulb was the correct one as listed in their book. and showed
>no further interest.
>The shop is now off the xmas card list

chances are that if there *is* a special bulb, the shop's list won't list it
correctly. Shop lists are like that and the disco 3 is almost certainly too
new to be in the lists...

having said that...

>Does the LR explanation stand up, or are they spinning a line?

it does sound a bit like it. more info required. Try contacting another
dealer, pref. one with a reputation for no bullshit, and say "My mate told
me... is it true?"

>If its true then all should beware
>If its unlikely then there could still be a gremlin lurking.

Did the car tell you that a light was out? In other words, is there a
bulb-outage sensing function?

If there is, it's possible that it needs the "right" bulb.
--
Austin Shackles. www.ddol-las.net my opinions are just that
"Festina Lente" (Hasten slowly) Suetonius (c.70-c.140) Augustus, 25

Matthew Maddock

>She went back to the car spares place in Crosspool, Sheffield and told
>them of the problem.
>They said the bulb was the correct one as listed in their book. and
>showed no further interest.
>The shop is now off the xmas card list

Is there anything unusual in that??? How many times have I bought belts
/ bulbs / windscreen wiper from Halfords / local motor spares shop only
to find that it is the wrong one. I had to take one belt back twice to
one place until I finally got the correct one from them, and the only
reason I then got the right one was because I guessed at the right size
given the two wrong ones they had already supplied (even though their
computer system said the first one was correct)

I always take the offending part into wherever I am buying the
replacement from now-a-days if possible.

Matt.

beamendsltd

In message <43c52c19$0$3032$6d36acad@roc.nntpserver.com>
"Nigel Hewitt" <nigelhewitt@hotmail.co.uk> wrote:

> Harpic <gerrybmail-camperman@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
>
> > Does the LR explanation stand up, or are they spinning a line?
>
> That a bulb causes software problems?
> Yeah We can buy that. Lot's of us have had worse problems.
>
> That they actually worked out what a software problem was in only two days?
> Your pulling my leg now aren't you?
>
> nigelH
>
>

It's quite possible - the fly-by-wire Jag I worked on relied on the
impedence of the bulb to detect a failure. It is also possible that
the failure of both brake lights etc may be deemed by some as reason
to tell the driver to stop. One of the results of such a strategey is
that minor faults that would not normaly be noticed can cause chaos -
exactly what you don't need off-road, or in remote areas. It's just
the sort of thing that stretches LR's off-road credability to the limit.

Richard
--
www.beamends-lrspares.co.uk sales@beamends-lrspares.co.uk
Running a business in a Microsoft free environment - it can be done
Powered by Risc-OS - you won't get a virus from us!!
Boycott the Yorkshire Dales - No Play, No Pay

Harpic

"Austin Shackles" <austinNOSPAM@ddol-las.net> wrote in message
news:c8vas11d7u14d4ike7496ftqdvqcsj71jg@4ax.com...
> On or around Wed, 11 Jan 2006 15:57:05 +0000 (UTC), "Harpic"
> <gerrybmail-camperman@yahoo.co.uk> enlightened us thusly:
>
>
>>Does the LR explanation stand up, or are they spinning a line?
>
> it does sound a bit like it. more info required. Try contacting another
> dealer, pref. one with a reputation for no bullshit, and say "My mate told
> me... is it true?"
>
>>If its true then all should beware
>>If its unlikely then there could still be a gremlin lurking.
>
> Did the car tell you that a light was out? In other words, is there a
> bulb-outage sensing function?
>
> If there is, it's possible that it needs the "right" bulb.
> --
> Austin Shackles. www.ddol-las.net my opinions are just that
> "Festina Lente" (Hasten slowly) Suetonius (c.70-c.140) Augustus, 25

As far as I can tell she had no auto warning of a bulb failure,

I will ask the question next time I see her

Gerry

willie@macleod-group.com

Harpic wrote:

> They said the bulb was the correct one as listed in their book. and showed
> no further interest. The shop is now off the xmas card list

It's a 50p bulb they sold her, not the car. If she took in the bulb
she'd have a much better chance of getting a replacement that was
correct. As it was they probably gave her the bulb which their data
told them was correct. It's a new vehicle, she shouldn't expect small
motor factors to have data sheets all that up to date because that just
doesn't happen! You can't beat having the part there for comparison.

If she fitted it, then the blame should lie with her unless the bulb
looked identical to the one that came out. Has she confirmed whether
the bulb looked the same and had the same markings?

Pretty poor show though that it disabled the vehicle. Could have some
rather worrying security consequences as well! Get her to put the bulb
back in and see if it does it again would be one way of double checking
to see if LR are talking rubbish!

Regards

William MacLeod

Neil Brownlee

<cough>

Apparently it's not a bulb. It's a lamp <grin>

--
Neil