Despite what a number of people will have you believe, you can't disable the immobiliser, it is integrated in the BeCM and engine ECU. If the car is locked with the remote and unlocked with the key, it will need the EKA putting in. However, if you unlock with the key and enter the EKA with the Nanocom, you can then lock and unlock with the key without needing to enter it again. If you simply enter the EKA with the key, you will need to enter it every tie you unlock the car. So If I locked it with the remote as I always do, then lost the key, I could retrieve my spare key blade, unlock the car, enter the EKA with the Nanocom (which lives in the car) and from then on I can lock and unlock with the key. Locking will still turn on the alarm and immobiliser and unlocking will turn them both off. This will work fine until the keyswitch in the door latch wears and stops working, then you will be able to unlock the car but it won't turn off the immobiliser so you are into the locked out scenario that people that always use the key will find themselves in sooner or later.

They are a BMW blank and any key cutting place here will do one. My local place didn't have the blank from stock but ordered a couple in for me once I told them what it was and they cut them from my key. It didn't show up when they looked for Land Rover keys but once they knew what it was the could check their catalogue against my key and confirm it.

Sticking a 433MHz receiver in would work, there is no programming or anything like that in them so it would be a plug and play job. I confirmed a dead one in one car by simply taking the receiver out of mine and putting it in another car.

When you placed the order the dealer must have asked for the VIN so the key blade could be cut to match your car, so that would tell them it should be 315MHz. Maybe they are available again.....

I'll admit I've only ever had one fob for mine. It is one of those things I have often thought I should order before they run out of 433MHz ones too but never got around to it. I've had a couple of key blanks cut so have manual keys, one at home and one secreted under the car (no point in having a spare at home if I've just dropped my keys down a drain 1,000 miles from home). I can enter the EKA with my Nanocom and after that, if I lock with the key I can unlock with the key and not need to put the EKA in.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/234534597402 or, if you feel the need, https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/234363495056 and you can have a full set of HEVAC bulbs too. I know Marty had to get some huge number made so sold batches of them to a number of others who are, no doubt putting a huge markup on them and, selling on eBay. He sold a load to a guy in France but I can't find where he advertises them at the moment.

On a locked BeCM, it won't even display the EKA (or the lockset barcode for that matter) for security reasons. The EKA is stored in the BeCM not the key so the only thing you will need to do is sync the key in the door lock as a 97 won't have the passive sync feature like a later car. Put the key in the door lock with all doors and tailgate closed, turn the key to lock and hold it there, while holding it there, press and hold the lock button on the fob until the LED flashes faster, release the button on the fob then turn the key back to centre. Then repeat only turning to unlock and pressing the unlock button on the fob. That should put it into sync and allow the remote to lock and unlock the car.

However, I'm slightly confused. You say you ordered a key from JLR but from numerous posts on rr.net, NAS keyfobs are NLA. NAS fobs use 315MHz instead of 433MHz like ones used in most of the rest of the world. This is down to the FCC. Radio frequency use ideally needs to be coordinated between adjoining countries so the EU proposed the use of 433MHz back in the 1980's. As RF doesn't know where one country stops and another starts (that is Radio Frequencies not the Russian Federation), it makes sense for the same frequency to be used across continents. However, as the US is isolated, in as much as it only has land borders with Mexico and Canada, you are forced to use the same as the USA. Hence 315MHz is used in Canada and if you ordered a replacement fob and gave them the VIN number, they would know it was 315MHz and, as far as I was aware, you'd be told they are no longer available. Unless JLR have listened to those on the opposite side of the Atlantic and have produced another batch of 315MHz fobs.

While you can lock an unlocked BeCM with a Nanocom, once locked it stays that way. They were programmed at the factory to an individual car then lock it so nobody can go in and mess things up.

Why have you got to take it off? The wiring is one thing but if you are taking the whole lot off you'll need to plug the holes in the inlet manifold.

Bolt wrote:

Of course, in the latest cold snap, the Zebra strip connector on the HVAC controller has come asunder.
Gotta get one of those and repair the display. Small but satisfying little fixes!

Mine has done that too. We haven't had the same sort of cold weather that you have but it's been damp. Didn't use the car for a whole day and when I did half the segments were missing. After a few miles they all came back, but it just annoyed me so I'm going to have to do something about it.

davew wrote:

Richard: Surely the catches are only 'handed' by virtue of the microswitch ? Thought the micro was N/C if bonnet closed ?

They both have the cable entering from the RH side but the fixings are offset. So if you fitted one on the wrong side the cable would need to come in from the other side. No, switch is definitely closed when the bonnet is open. Mine died a few years ago and I assumed, like you, that I would need to put a short in the plug to turn the warning off. Did that and it stayed on all the time. Open is closed.

Switch is on the back of the RH bonnet catch but not on the slam panel, n the metalwork either side of the slam panel. Switch can work loose so it permanently shows the bonnet open but when open it is short circuit. If it is unplugged and the plug left dangling, it will never tell you the bonnet is open. You can't swap them side to side as the catches are handed. If the microswitch is removed from the latch but left connected, you will get a warning that the bonnet is open even when it isn't.

EAS will work if the bonnet is open or not, it is only the doors and tailgate that inhibit it.

You can exercise them without pulling the dash out (in fact you can change them without pulling the whole dash out). Take off the centre console side panels and undo the 4 screws holding the HEVAC in. Tilt it out at the top and it will then come out. Unplug the black connector to the blend motors (on the left, towards the back). If you look at that one you will see 3 sets of wires the same colour. The Black and Brown wires go to the actual motors, Left blend motor on pins 11 and 12, right blend motor on pins 9 and 10 and distribution motor on pins 6 and 16. If you use a 9V battery and connect it to those pairs of pins, you can power the motor from one end of the travel to the other. Connected one way round moves it one way, the other way round moves it the other way. You'll be able to hear them whirring away as they move and doing it a few times may be all you need to wake up the lazy ones.

A Thor will bring on the SRS light if it detects a fault but it will go out once the fault is cleared unlike the earlier GEMS which needs it to be reset with diagnostics even after the fault is cleared. Favourite fault with the Thor is the connector under one of the seats which gets disturbed whenever the seat is moved. Unplug, squirt with contact cleaner and plug back in is all that is normally needed.

Bolt wrote:

When Gilbert says virtually all.......He means they even allow Yanks! (we have P-38's here too!)

But only the sensible ones......

Spot on. It was formed as a few years ago when rr.net had the redneck Admin who ran it as if it was his own personal site and a number of us got banned for varying lengths of time for correcting him, having a sense of humour or causing a thread to drift off topic. This site was set up as a virtual pub, you come in, sit down and join in the chat and banter. Virtually all of us own P38's, are based in the UK and work on our own cars. So we don't take our car to the 'shop' to be bent over backwards and charged stupid amounts of money for very simple jobs. I got a lifetime ban from rr.net for sending PM's to UK based owners and suggesting they join here rather than there. Ironically, I registered a different username, kept my head down for a while and have since been made Admin on there in place of the previous. Some of my posts on there would have without a doubt got me a ban previously but oddly enough, nobody has ever reported any of my posts to the Admin (me)......

I'll also edit your post so the pictures show up.

You have something drawing around 535mA for 3 minutes but not continually but on and off every 1/2 second or so. That would suggest a flashing light or similar. With interior lights on, you've got 3A draw, lights go out and it drops 1.6A but with the mysterious flashing making it jump between 1.6 and 2.0A (or thereabouts) until the BeCM goes to sleep so it drops to 35mA but the flashing has now become a permanent 535mA draw until it switches off after a further minute. The only thing I can think of is the alarm system with it's flashing LED on top of the dash but that normally sorts itself out before the BeCM goes to sleep and wouldn't be enabled if all you did was shut the door and not lock it.

Mirafiori-Max wrote:

The cars I had until now mainly needed a set of spanners and a welder, but with this one I am staring at excel spreadsheets for hours...^^ Well, that´s evolution for you....

That's progress for you. I was at my trailer hire place today and they were quoting for a towbar fit to a Mazda. Apparently, you can't just tack the wiring onto the rear lights these days, you need a special programmable Canbus box and something as simple as probing a wire to see if it is live is enough to cause a fault requiring diagnostics to clear the fault.

Another, maybe not connected, thing is that when I open the driver (left) door, the inner light does not come on and the opening of the door is not recorded by the EAS ECU, so no inhibiting of function. But in the BECM Menu, I can see that the "Door ajar" switch is functioning properly. As far as I know the BECM send that signal to the EAS ECU....could that be related and point toward some kind of intermittent electrical problem or is that something else...?

If the light doesn't come on when you open the door, the door ajar switch isn't doing what it should irrespective of what the BeCM thinks.....

P.S. The forum response time seems extremely slow since yesterday or is that just me?

Yes, I've noticed that too. I'm using Firefox with the forum permanently open in one tab. If I hit the Firefox Refresh button, it takes about a minute for the page to refresh and show me if there are any new posts. However, if I click on Range Rover P38 at the top of the page, it refreshes instantly. I've emailed Gordon (the man that looks after the server and software side of things) and he is looking into it.

I think these https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/micro-switches/2945905 where the ones I bought. The tip of the actuator isn't quite as tall so mounting is going to be critical to make sure they operate when they should. That is the usual problem with the keyswitch, too much use of the key causes the pip, and the sliding bit of plastic that operates it, to wear so there isn't enough movement to cause it to operate.

Obviously the ones in the latch are made into a single block of 3 so you need three switches and a means to hold them together.

romanrob wrote:

As regards leaving these cars standing for any period of time...it takes less than a minute to pop the hood, remove the negative off the battery and slam lock the doors

There is a way of doing it if you don't mind a bit of faffing around. Open the bonnet, close all doors and tailgate and lock with the key (not with the remote). Disconnect battery negative and close the bonnet. When you want to reconnected it, unlock with the key, open bonnet, close the door and lock again with the key, reconnect the battery and unlock with the key before closing the bonnet. That way when you reconnect it, the car is in exactly the same state as it was when you disconnected it, doors all closed but bonnet open and locked with the key. I've done this on a couple of cars and the remote had stayed in sync, the windows had stayed set, EKA wasn't asked for but the radio had lost the stored stations. However, I can't be bothered to do that on the Ascot, if I go to it and find the battery has gone flat then I know I left it for too long.....

and they don't understand electric, they can't see it and it doesn't go up and down or round and round......

I'd very carefully check the fusebox. They do fail and if there are high resistance joints, they get worse as they warm up and the resistance rises so voltage falls.

davew wrote:

As for your drain itself (in my case/P38) after some weeks this can happen - and I have assumed, particularly in winter, that it is probably caused by a combination of condensation/muck/road salt somewhere (!) Not very helpful I know but I fitted a small LED voltmeter on the dash a while ago to keep an eye on things... Much cheaper than a(nother) new battery !

( Before someone comments I eliminated the usual alarm/EAS/BECM drain 'culprits' years ago too )

In the case of my Ascot, and probably most others where a car is left not being used, it is likely down to a combination of multiple things. First there is the 25-30mA draw that the alarm and other permanently powered items cause but as well as the EAS waking up every 6 hours or so, as it still has the original first generation receiver the BeCM will wake up for 2 minutes every time I lock or unlock my car or the missus locks or unlocks hers. Under the circumstances, I don't think 4-5 weeks is too bad. A voltmeter wouldn't be a lot of help as that would involve checking it and the only time the Ascot gets looked at is when I know it is going to be used. If the battery is flat at that time I'll either stick the charger on it for a few hours or, if I need to use it urgently, jump start it off one of the others. I've thought about putting a solar trickle charger on it but the only real advantage of that would be to save me having to enter the EKA, reset the windows and sunroof and, most annoyingly, guess how much LPG it still has left in it as the trip meter will have dropped to 0.0 so I've no idea how far it has been driven since it was last filled!

Hmm, a weird one. Looking at the diagram I can't see how the fuse blowing could cause a drain. A problem with the starter solenoid or starter relay could blow the fuse but once the fuse has blown, where is the power being drained coming from?

i suspect your Hankook will recover. There's an MF31-750 on the Ascot and that will go flat after about 4 or 5 weeks, which, as it is only used as and when we need two, is quite common. I stick the charger on it, put the EKA in, reset the windows and all is fine.