"S" and "M" mode lights, disco II-any advice

[lilmul]

YUP its still there .I was in St John,s NFLD all last winter working at the air port on Oshkosh equipment.

I actually met up wit the rover club there and we went out a few times .The D2 Is a set up used by I believe the owner of the Rover dealer there .Its usually parked at he dealership. There is also a nice 101 ambulance out behind the dealership

 

[jsonova99]

Re: go the same problem.....

Hi i got the same problem on a sidsco 2 2000......it was the cranshaft sensor that was begining dying i m changing it at this moment.........M & S = electric or transmission liquid

My Disco doesn't get driven much, took it today to work, ran fine going, ran fine coming home, until I stopped to get gas. Go to turn it on, truck is dead (this has happened before), it's the + battery cable connection on the battery. Jiggle it and everything comes back, but now I've got the flashing lights and had to limp home about 3 miles.

My Ultragauge was warning me that there was an alarm (seemed reasonable under the circumstances). Used my scanner to check codes, nothing came up. Tried resetting everything by disconnecting battery, still in limp mode.

So after reading this, the battery issue seems like an obvious source here and it also seems also very coincidental that this happened at the moment of the battery connector losing contact, but I also just did a transmission service a few weeks ago that couldn't have more than 75 to 100 miles on it. If I try to shift into gear, the transmission is suddenly very clunky. It's never been like that, always very smooth. My question is whether this is consistent with being in limp home mode, or if something could be going on like maybe I didn't tighten the filter enough and it's wiggled loose inside the transmission sump. That would be consistent with a low fluid condition I would think since the fluid pickup would be up on the bottom of the transmission above the fluid level when running (I think this is right)

Engine is running fine, definitely seems to be transmission or electrical system. I hate the thought of wasting the $50 worth of Mobil 1 ATF I just put in as well as going through the whole process of dropping the pan and burning my hands on the cats while refilling. Guess I could start with the battery.

 

[K-rover]

What you described is normal for limp mode. When it happened to me I left the battery unplugged for few hours and that seemed to fix it.

 

[Flyfish]

Flashing M&S many times is a bad battery.

 

[jsonova99]

So I left the battery disconnected for a few hours then hooked everything back up and it's still there. Battery starts truck up with no problem, going to check again for codes, but otherwise I'm going to drop the transmission pan and make sure everything is good as a sanity check. Not sure what else to do. I can't believe that my transmission went from fine to failed while I put gas in the truck for 5 minutes.

 

[jsonova99]

No codes, but my reader is not getting status from the following systems indicated by yellow LED and these system monitors blinking on the display:
Catalyst monitor
Evaporative system monitor
Oxygen sensor monitor
Oxygen sensor heater monitor

It's a cheap Innova 3030 scanner, but it's always been good when giving codes. Never noticed if it had problems with these systems in the past, when I used it it always gave me a code and I fixed it. Not sure if this points to something or if this could be something like a blown fuse, etc.

 

[jsonova99]

Seems to have fixed itself for now, started up and drove it a little and everything is back to normal. Maybe related to the loose battery connection and took a few restarts to reset itself? Guess I'll keep an eye on it. Things like this drive me crazy because they challenge my confidence that it's going to get me from point A to B and back to A.

 

[cts]

It's a battery or your xyz sensor - I said the same thing - my year old optima could not possibly be bad - kept getting the lights once a week or so - then swapped for a 31m odyssey and haven't seen a light since. Engine started perfectly every time but when load tested it failed

 

[jsonova99]

Don't get me started on Optima batteries

 

[Bennett]

thanks again to this board and the awesome users. had flashing M&S, it was the battery. Let it charge a little bit, cleared codes (which stopped the flashing), and took it for a nice drive to give the battery some charge. all good now. cheers

 

[bendts]

I had this happen constantly when i had Optima batteries in my 01 disco - Now that i spent the money on an Odyssey i have not seen the M&S lights.

 

[CRB357]

When the M&S Limp return, bc they will, go directly to the xyz switch on the transmission. I had same issues and chased all the battery bullshit, coins under shifter bullshit, even replaced alternator. Turned out it was the xyz switch. I removed it in 5 mins, drilled out rivets in 3 mins, used contact cleaner, then a pencil eraser on the contacts, adjusted the little tabs about 1mm, applied some grease, went to hardware store for some small screws and lock nuts, put it back together, siliconed the seal, installed it, adjusted it back and forth until the P R N D 1 2 3 corresponded with the position of the shifter, and then have enjoyed no problems since then. All for free, less than 2 hrs, and all from info and members of this site, for which I'm forever thankful for.

I would be more than happy to talk you through it when they return.

 

[ubuntu]

Care to share some info in pulling the XYZ switch?
I'm getting intermittent M&S and have chased down everything else, new battery, new battery cables etc.

 

[CRB357]

Sure. I pretty much laid it all out above. What specific question do you have?

 

[CRB357]

Call me ubuntu when you can get under it. Number in my sig.

 

[ubuntu]

Where is the xyz switch located? In the base of the gear select lever?

 

[CRB357]

It under the truck on the driver side on tranny. Two bolts hold it on. You have to disconnect shifter linkage and unplug the connector from the xyz switch before it will come out. It takes a little effort and massaging, but it comes off. I attached a picture of what it looks like.

 

[CRB357]

To be more specific, it is on the driver side of the tranny oil pan. You will see the shift linkage attached to it. Also, this needs to be done when the motor is cold, you will be touching the exhaust a lot.

 

[CRB357]

Once you get it off, drill out those 7 rivets and open it up. You will then see this:

 

[CRB357]

Let me know when you get this far.