LandRover Defender Jump Start

some defenders have 24 volt electrics.

We have a Defender in our car pool at work and I have used it to jump start numerous cars and vans over the years, with no ill effect.

Any car with an ECU *might* be damaged by jump-starting. It's caused by the voltage surge when disconnecting the jump leads.

As long as the instructions and warnings in the owners handbooks are followed, all will be OK.

Best practice is to leave the leads connected and the donor car running for at least 20 minutes before attempting a start, then stopping both engines before disconnecting the leads.

If the dead car then won't restart, jump it again, and switch on screen heater(s), blower, and any other large electrical loads (other than lights) on the dead vehicle before remove the leads with the engines running.

Jump leads with built-in surge suppressors, and separate suppressors to connect across the battery are available. (Their use is compulsory for AA patrols.)

There will be loads of folk on this thread later telling you that it can't happen, usually based on the fact that it hasn't to them yet. I have actual experience of exactly this failure occurring (to a VW Transporter), with very little possibility of any other cause.

Chris

anything like that?

I suspect that it was mostly because people make a complete bollock of jump starts. I'm having to buy a new radio for the Jeep because erindoors fried the electrics trying to do a jump start.

Only military ('Wolf') versions, AIUI.

Chris