jbwm1

Member
Thought I'd share this as it may be of use to some of you although it's probably a unique failure only ours had! However there is a cautionary tale here regarding LandRover and stealers.

In 2009 we bought a brand new L322 TDV8 Westminster with extended warranty which was and still is a simply marvelous car. The only alteration that has been made was having it chipped by JE Engineering within the first month.

Fast forward three years, to 2012, and at 67,000 miles, it came to a spluttering halt with 'Engine System Failure' on the dash.

Still under warranty it was returned to Land Rover who investigated. The intercooler was found to be full of water, the left turbo shot and at least one injector in need of replacement.

They first tried to imply we'd been wading and were therefore responsible for the water ingress. After we pointed out to them that we hadn't, and even if we had would they mind explaining why it was coolant in the intercooler, they retired to consider their next move.

They then announced they would not be honouring the warranty as the vehicle had not had it's 60,000 mile service and so we were in breach of maintenance obligations and therefore had invalidated the warranty.

Again, we politely explained that every time we had tried to book it for its 60,000 mile service we had been asked 'is the service indicator showing a service is required'? We said no and were told not to worry, the car knows when it needs servicing so book it when it tells you.

As 'a gesture of good will' they begrudgingly agreed to carry out the work under warranty as they could see from the service file that servicing had been completed from new in line with their own policy.

The work was completed and much to our frustration they were never able to tell us where the coolant had come from, how it got into the intercooler, or what they'd done to repair the initial problem that had caused it.

Apparently as the work was done under warranty they didn't need to supply a list of work completed, despite our instance they should.

Anyway time wore on, the car performed excellently and we gave up pushing.

Lesson one. Land Rover will try and stiff you every step of the way.

Fast forward almost exactly three years to 2015, and a further 60,000 miles and we came to a spluttering halt on the motorway. Again 'engine system fault'.

Luckily(?) this time it was out of warranty so I had the option to take it to a specialist who investigated and found guess what...

The intercooler full of water, the turbo bust and some injector damage. Removal of the heads showed the extent of the water ingress and that it had been happening for a considerable time.

He was also able to confirm the work previously done by Land Rover due to some 'bent bits where they'd been digging around'. Essentially a shoddy job.

As for the engine exactly the same fault in almost exactly the same time frame.

The eventual cause was diagnosed as a faulty EGR valve, which is apparently water cooled on the L322, that had been leaking - most likely since new - and at a rate that seems to takes 3 years to fill an intercooler before the coolant in the system skims though the turbo and then engine goes bang.

Lesson 2. Work completed under warranty by landrover will be done without proper investigation, as quickly as possible and with little care for root cause.

I guess the moral of the story is don't let them bully you and always ask to have the cause of a problem explained and the rectifying work highlighted to you.

Also, should anyone else have an engine showing these issues, the EGR could be your problem!

There is no reason why this would matter to them but, as a family and across generations, we have over the decades spent hundreds of thousands of pounds with them. So, to have them trying everything - even to convince us we were somehow responsible for the failure - to try to renege on the warranty left a bitter taste. Add to that the later discovery that the work had not been thorough and the actual fault never rectified and it leaves you wondering why you bothered with them.

Regrettably, once the marque is in the blood, it's hard to shift. We still have the Range Rover and will do for another 60,000 at least since the engine has been rebuilt.

We still have a 1999 D2 V8 ES that we've had since new (also on a new engine!) and there is now a 300tdi soft dash in the family which is a rolling project while others have come and gone.

At heart, they're fantastic - if increasingly complicated - vehicles. It's just such a shame they have, as a brand, been let down by the people who sell them and the teams in aftersales.

They constantly get slammed for this by industry and by customer review but I guess if you're still selling them, why bother trying to be better.
 
If the intercooler was full of coolant, did you never notice the coolant level dropping? If you kept topping up, did it never occur to you to think about where the coolant was going?
I think you were very lucky to get it done the first time under warranty, loss of coolant should have rung alarm bells.
 
If the intercooler was full of coolant, did you never notice the coolant level dropping? If you kept topping up, did it never occur to you to think about where the coolant was going?
I think you were very lucky to get it done the first time under warranty, loss of coolant should have rung alarm bells.

I suppose it could have been a sudden coolant loss into the intercooler. How many people check their levels every day? In the past ,when I drove for a living, I did because it was your duty, but these days warning lights, bells and whistles have taken over from physically checking.:)
 
If the intercooler was full of coolant, did you never notice the coolant level dropping? If you kept topping up, did it never occur to you to think about where the coolant was going?
I think you were very lucky to get it done the first time under warranty, loss of coolant should have rung alarm bells.

Good point datatek but genuinely the coolant levels never appeared to be an issue - given the time frame we're talking a very slow gradual loss of fluid over a number of years. It would have been topped up when necessary during its servicing.

But no, at no point did a poke under the bonnet raise concerns. And performance drop off you don't notice either over such a gradual period. You just get used to it.
 
Wow that's a scary story. Mine is a 3.6 tdv8.

Pretty sure it's very rare indeed. I've never heard of it happening to anyone else's but I'm sure datatek, wammers or Saint V8 might have?

Otherwise can't fault the TDv8 - IMHO it's the best engine the Range Rover has ever had.
 
Pretty sure it's very rare indeed. I've never heard of it happening to anyone else's but I'm sure datatek, wammers or Saint V8 might have?

Otherwise can't fault the TDv8 - IMHO it's the best engine the Range Rover has ever had.

Well it's done 84,000 miles now but I'll be keeping an eye on it.
 
If the intercooler was full of coolant, did you never notice the coolant level dropping? If you kept topping up, did it never occur to you to think about where the coolant was going?
I think you were very lucky to get it done the first time under warranty, loss of coolant should have rung alarm bells.

In fairness I don't think i would notice an intercoolers worth of coolant over 3 years or 67000 miles going missing but saying that i would have thought it would be a sudden fail as over that length of time it would have evaporated before filling up the intercooler.

Nice of the OP to take the time to post anyway as may well help others
 
A small amount of coolant going through a turbo would never be noticed. A sudden flood would. A least the engine internals would be clean. :D:D:D
 
On a more serious note, we too used to have new LR stuff on a regular basis. I had a new RR every year for quite a few years, dad had a new disco, and the farm ran a 90.....

However, the kind of experience described by the OP became typical of our local main stealer - they became truly and completely hopeless. They would fetch manual courtesy cars for me, when I can, for medical reasons, only drive an auto! etc., etc., etc....

So I stopped buying new ones - even had a discussion with LR about it - not really bothered (IMHO!).

They were good products, but I wouldn't have a new one - far too complicated.

But, in case anyone thinks I am biased, the foreign stuff is much the same, and simply, IME, not fixable when it goes wrong.
 
Dealer sales are all the same, obviously they bend over backwards when selling vehicles but aftercare is shocking.
My experience of warranty work on my land rovers has been amazingly shocking to say the least.
Just a couple of examples being:

Told the handbrake didn't need adjusting because the auto gearbox park does that job.

Dealer loans me a customers car as a courtesy car then denies all knowledge.

Oh the list goes on and on.
 
That's truly shocking service - I tend to do all my own servicing unless there's still a warranty to keep, so my recent dealer experience is limited - however when I had my Jags both dealers I used were superb - couldn't do enough for me - and now I've just had my current car serviced (whisper it) Lexus - and they were excellent too. The above tale would be enough to put me off a marque for life. As for the wading comment - it's a ****ing Range Rover - if it can't wade - what can?
 
That's truly shocking service - I tend to do all my own servicing unless there's still a warranty to keep, so my recent dealer experience is limited - however when I had my Jags both dealers I used were superb - couldn't do enough for me - and now I've just had my current car serviced (whisper it) Lexus - and they were excellent too. The above tale would be enough to put me off a marque for life. As for the wading comment - it's a ****ing Range Rover - if it can't wade - what can?
Jaguar service was excellent when I had my new XJS, BMW & Porsche were beyond awful, I like Toyota's, but the service was poor. Ford were OK but then I had 35 of them and the dealer wanted to keep my business:rolleyes:
 
Jaguar service was excellent when I had my new XJS, BMW & Porsche were beyond awful, I like Toyota's, but the service was poor. Ford were OK but then I had 35 of them and the dealer wanted to keep my business:rolleyes:[/QUOTE
A Ford main dealer told my mate who's car was mis firing on the motorway in the rain, to stop driving on motorways. :rolleyes::D
 
Especially when the recommended safe wading depth is stated in the hand-book o_O
I waded a Citroen ZX diesel over the bonnet one night driving home from work. Not through choice. My own fault though. I should have waited a few seconds more to guage the depth on the Disco 1 i was following into the dip in the road before driving in myself. I was past the point of no return when his rear bumper suddenly submerged...
I had no choice other than maintain bow wave and keep going.
 

Similar threads