Hi,

Recently swapped my 4.4 V8 Range Rover Autobiography for a D300 110 X-Dynamic. All was going well until the other day when the wife tried to start it (having just driven it 30 minutes to the vets no bother) and the low battery warning came up on the dash accompanied by a very fine smoke coming from under the bonnet.

Land Rover "assistance" were called and the AA were sent out to see what they could do. The mechanic said the oil dip stick was dry (car was bought from Land Rover Approved in December '23, only done 5000 miles since). We've had no low oil pressure warnings or any signs of leaking oil or smokey exhaust, the car was running fantastically up till this point.

The car was recovered the next day (after they sent the wrong kind of truck out to get it on the day) and it is now sat in a queue at Parks Land Rover in Inverness. Still no diagnosis on the problem so unsure where i'm at wrt Warranty, GAP insurance or even my own car insurance.

Has any had a similar problem or can offer any suggestions? Its the not knowing what's wrong that's p****ing me off more than not having the car available. In the meantime i've got a Peugot something or other as a "courtesy."

I have no idea of the issue but no oil on the stick is not good. Smoke may have been a small oil drip on to something like exhaust and it burning off. Any where else it would result in a mark where you park. The under tray on today's vehicles can mask such issues though.

If indeed there was no oil on the dipstick then would it be safe to assume there are bigger problems with the engine given that its done 5000 miles since coming from a Land Rover Used Approved dealer?

Will post the diagnosis when they get back to me.

Obviously you didn't check oil levels in those 5000 miles, but did you notice any oil spots on your parking spot? They come standard with all Land Rovers, you know.

Western Slope Rover said:

Obviously you didn't check oil levels in those 5000 miles, but did you notice any oil spots on your parking spot? They come standard with all Land Rovers, you know.

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No oil spots, dash warnings or smoke from the exhaust.

My guess if the seller doesn't service the vehicle before the buyer purchase the fault lies there first. As many here who have a military background, a weekly vehicle check was impressed verbatim before signing out of the MT. If monthly check after purchase showed up oil loss greater than low dip I would quickly question why. If still under warranty you can query after a month or two. Either there wasn't sufficient oil in the first place or the loss was being consumed by the engine itself.

The new defenders don’t have a dipstick it’s electronic so it would be good to know what he was looking at!

The new defenders don’t have a dipstick it’s electronic so it would be good to know what he was looking at

johnlad said:

The new defenders don’t have a dipstick it’s electronic so it would be good to know what he was looking at

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Well that's stupid.

Land Rover just keeps on delivering excellence in both product and service expertise.

Western Slope Rover said:

Well that's stupid.

Land Rover just keeps on delivering excellence in both product and service expertise.

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Turns out the mechanic that attended was talking crap and there were no issues with the oil levels.

Still, it took Land Rover almost 6 weeks to even diagnose the issue only to find it was the starter motor and a replacement battery.

Shocking service and a total lack of triage from their side, great that it was just the starter and battery but they could’ve had the car off their books in a couple of days rather than 6 weeks.