Just bought an l322 td6 am I mad?

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1

109inches

Well-Known Member
Posts
644
Location
Devon
Hello All
After having 3 td5 discoveries as daily cars and deciding they were not enough for my needs I went back to a normal car and somehow 2 months later I’ve bought a Range Rover.

it’s an early 2003 td6 with 190,000 miles that I’m crazy enough to use as my everyday car (well everyday it’s working). I’ve given myself until the end of this month to make it as close to reliable as possible and catch faults before they develop into something more serious.
After watching many reviews of people slating the bmw engined Range Rover I must said I don’t agree. It’s beautifully smooth, very quiet and for nearly 3 tons and floaty suspension it moves down the road very nicely. It’s more refined than my 335d I currently drive.
So far after owning it 2 weeks I have replaced all the front suspension apart from anti roll bar bushes. It’s had 2 new air spring and shock units, a full engine service including replacing the loo roll breather with a vortex one, egr and cooler delete.
Radio has been replaced with a pioneer Apple car play unit. Led interior. Rear wiper motor has been fixed as it was seized.

Jobs left to do at present are:
Engine thermostat
Gearbox oil change
Diff oil change
Transfer box oil change
parking sensors aren’t working
Rear anti roll bar drop link needs replacing
A few cosmetic bits and pieces.

If anyone has any other suggestions (I’m already planning a back up car) then I’m all ears.
 
Totally bonkers, we all love our Vogues but in reality it’s an addiction. Personally I wouldn’t buy one that needed all that work because I’d be afraid of what else could develop during the project. That said if the body is good above and below then fair enough. Can you post some pics?
My parking sensors were completely dead for several weeks and on the to do list but after getting all the interior compartments free of damp they miraculously came fully functioning. Coincidence, I think not.
Best plan would be get it clean in and out, charge the battery as full as possible, check all earthing points, rubber floor mats to keep carpets dry and dehumidifier pillows everywhere there is electronics so you’ve covered the basics. Finally try to drive it as often as you can. Enjoy your new ride but can you keep the 335d (decent wheels)?
Tricky.
 
Henry_b said:
Should be on it's 6th gearbox at that mileage.
Click to expand...
Gearbox has been rebuilt recently and after loads I test drove it feels like it. It’s a lovely car to drive and my view on cars is any second hand car can be a money pit it’s all down to luck. At the end of the day I really enjoy driving it and when it’s working well fixing it seems worthwhile. Money will be saved for when failures happen and I know they will.
I think the range rover reliability has got to do with people wanting them to show off but can’t really afford to fix them when they go wrong so they slag the car off and say it’s rubbish. If we were all scared of owning a car that breaks we’d all be in Toyota aygos.


Tricky of York said:
Totally bonkers, we all love our Vogues but in reality it’s an addiction. Personally I wouldn’t buy one that needed all that work because I’d be afraid of what else could develop during the project. That said if the body is good above and below then fair enough. Can you post some pics?
My parking sensors were completely dead for several weeks and on the to do list but after getting all the interior compartments free of damp they miraculously came fully functioning. Coincidence, I think not.
Best plan would be get it clean in and out, charge the battery as full as possible, check all earthing points, rubber floor mats to keep carpets dry and dehumidifier pillows everywhere there is electronics so you’ve covered the basics. Finally try to drive it as often as you can. Enjoy your new ride but can you keep the 335d (decent wheels)?
Tricky.
Click to expand...
The rest of the Range Rover is rest quite good. Some cosmetic issues otherwise everything works. For the price I can drive it for 6 months then bin it. I’ve had a 330d the same age so know the engine and electronics well. After replacing front air suspension that doesn’t give me any concern and I’m a pneumatical engineer so it’s a fairly simple system.

the parking sensors had the fault beep to start with whenever reverse was selected. Listening out for clicks pointed to the rear near side sensor. Then one day it was just beeping and the error light flashing nonstop. My diagnostic reader says voltage too low and the switch on the dash won’t turn off the system it just flashes all the time. So the fuse is out at the minute. I don’t park anywhere that makes me desperately need sensors but I hate things not working that should.
The interior already had genuine rubber mats and there’s no leaks. As for the 335d it’s a lovely car but for rural Devon the suspensions a bit firm and I can never use all the power without putting me and others in dangerous situations. That engine would be lovely in the Range Rover as a tdv8 competitor.
 
45D2FB86-DB2D-4F01-B4D5-75E8CC9B506E.jpeg
3A0EDED0-2DB6-464D-839B-93A8B6639A43.jpeg
 
Nice to hear we have a pneumatic engineer on board, please feel free to post any wisdom as some of our number live in fear of dreaded EAS fault messages.
Low voltage is common to many RR issues as the experts will testify I’m sure so watch out for that.
Also check the carpets under the rubber mats for damp because we’re running out of hot days to air them.
My top tip of the week is don’t forget every time you unlock the car or open doors to work inside or clean it the dam electronics wake up and set about draining the battery, simply turn the ignition key on then off again and remove the key to let it go back to sleep. There’s the interior light button hold to turn them off but the centre screen will stay on.
Tricky.
 
109inches said:
Gearbox has been rebuilt recently and after loads I test drove it feels like it. It’s a lovely car to drive and my view on cars is any second hand car can be a money pit it’s all down to luck. At the end of the day I really enjoy driving it and when it’s working well fixing it seems worthwhile. Money will be saved for when failures happen and I know they will.
I think the range rover reliability has got to do with people wanting them to show off but can’t really afford to fix them when they go wrong so they slag the car off and say it’s rubbish. If we were all scared of owning a car that breaks we’d all be in Toyota aygos.
I cannot remember hearing the engine being slagged off, it's the gearbox thats the weak point,if yours had been rebuilt then it should be ok for 70k miles long as its been done right.;)


The rest of the Range Rover is rest quite good. Some cosmetic issues otherwise everything works. For the price I can drive it for 6 months then bin it. I’ve had a 330d the same age so know the engine and electronics well. After replacing front air suspension that doesn’t give me any concern and I’m a pneumatical engineer so it’s a fairly simple system.

the parking sensors had the fault beep to start with whenever reverse was selected. Listening out for clicks pointed to the rear near side sensor. Then one day it was just beeping and the error light flashing nonstop. My diagnostic reader says voltage too low and the switch on the dash won’t turn off the system it just flashes all the time. So the fuse is out at the minute. I don’t park anywhere that makes me desperately need sensors but I hate things not working that should.
The interior already had genuine rubber mats and there’s no leaks. As for the 335d it’s a lovely car but for rural Devon the suspensions a bit firm and I can never use all the power without putting me and others in dangerous situations. That engine would be lovely in the Range Rover as a tdv8 competitor.
Click to expand...
 
Tricky of York said:
Nice to hear we have a pneumatic engineer on board, please feel free to post any wisdom as some of our number live in fear of dreaded EAS fault messages.
Low voltage is common to many RR issues as the experts will testify I’m sure so watch out for that.
Also check the carpets under the rubber mats for damp because we’re running out of hot days to air them.
My top tip of the week is don’t forget every time you unlock the car or open doors to work inside or clean it the dam electronics wake up and set about draining the battery, simply turn the ignition key on then off again and remove the key to let it go back to sleep. There’s the interior light button hold to turn them off but the centre screen will stay on.
Tricky.
Click to expand...

that is good to know I know all sorts of issues can occur with a failing battery. The battery in it seems decent however I won’t hesitate to fit the most powerful battery that will fit. As long as the gearbox holds it should be a decent daily.
 
Well today I discovered why my parking sensors are playing up. After unlocking the car and getting a constant beep before the ignition was on that wouldn’t disappear unless the drivers door was open with the lights on. I started investigating the ecu.
I unplugged one of the connectors one at a time and when the black middle connector was pulled out the beeping stopped. A quick look at the connector and it was full of water so I now need a new parking sensor ecu unless I’m lucky and drying it out helps and a water leak now needs sorting. Is there any common seals that would go on that side causing water ingress?
 
Well spotted good detective work always pays off. Not surprised that water is involved, like I said in my earlier post getting moisture out has to be one of the highest priorities. Hope the ECU is sound.
Tricky :)
 
Tricky of York said:
Well spotted good detective work always pays off. Not surprised that water is involved, like I said in my earlier post getting moisture out has to be one of the highest priorities. Hope the ECU is sound.
Tricky :)
Click to expand...
Ecu unfortunately is no use. Cleaned it up plugged it in and nothing. My diagnostics reader can no longer establish a link to it.
One of the pins from the black connector has rusted so much it snapped into the plug.
Ordered another tested ecu for a tenner.

on an unrelated note I was very busy yesterday I have not got any pictures of it but the handbrake has been adjusted and works really well. The gearbox oil was changed and it came out a lovely red colour. So that helps me believe the gearbox was rebuilt recently as with just a drain and refill you can’t get the torque converter drained and the oil would turn black quite quick?

I did unfortunately find both sills at the rear jacking point are completely rotten. Fortunately the inner strengthener for the jacking points are intact and I have over engineered the strength back into these points.
 
Some progress made today.

rear antiroll bar droplink that had broken, the ball joint had come out of the socket. This was an absolute ball ache to do. It’s always the jobs that should be simple. After being use to drop links that have an Allen key or torx fitting in the thread I thought this with an 18 mm fitting wouldn’t be too bad. But such poor access and a rusty thread made it a 2 man job.

Finished up my sills and a little test proved them strong. I’m however going to use them only in emergencies otherwise the subframe will be the jacking point. Also found that someone had changed the rear brake pads but only on the side of the wear sensor. So some new discs and pads will be on order.
Now to some this might seem like a lot of work with everything I’ve done and needs doing but in a way I’m glad. I only trust my work and I know what I have and haven’t done. Hopefully it proves to be as reliable as a 17 year old car can be. For as long as it can be safe for the road I will keep it going unless I decide to trade up to a newer one.
 
As a lot of people on here like pictures the only interesting one I have is of the radio install. A pioneer Apple car play unit maintaining steering wheel controls.
94209CD7-BCCD-4A06-807A-96B9BD186F15.jpeg
 
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