Looking to buy this LR4, but rattle at cold start. Goes away when warm...

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Tapps33

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I realize I’m a little late to the conversation, but I have a couple thoughts.

First, I agree, it’s very hard to tell what the noise is from the video, but with all the drive belts disconnected and the noise still present there are really only a few potential culprits.

Second, I have found that a lot of the SC engines tend to start having issues with the oil lubricating systems. Specifically, some of the tiny oil jets get clogged. I’m not sure why this is the case, just that the SC blocks have more oil jets than the NA engine blocks. (The NA blocks don’t have oil jets for the underside of the pistons). Most of the spun bearings I’ve seen have all been on SC engines…typically due to the fact that an oil jet got clogged by metal particulate and then that associated bearing gets hot and eats itself. FYI, on these engines, bearings are nothing more than bushing…ie curved metal with a channel and oil port in it:


Why am I telling you this? Simple, have your shop pull the oil filter and cut it apart and take a look at the filter element. They can also pull the oil pan plug and look for metal particles as the oil plug should be magnetized. If there’s an excessive build up, chances are the engine has a two fold problem. First, something is rubbing that shouldn’t be, creating “junk” in the engine that is now clogging other oiling points that are now creating more symptoms….like a timing chain tensioner that won’t function correctly until the oil gets warm enough and thin enough to build enough pressure to schedule the timing chain correctly. If this is indeed the case, swapping the timing chains will fix the short term problem, but the engine is gonna be a ticking time bomb as something else will fail as the original issue was never repaired.

If there’s additional internal damage, there’s gonna be metal in the oil filter. If the oil filter is clean and clear (assuming it wasn’t changed a couple days ago) I’d get the repairs done and walk away with a new LR4. Ok, full disclosure, I might have the Indy shop run some cleaners through the engine, flush, then refill with oil after the timing belt change. That said, 65K is an unusually low mileage for chains to fail, which is why I suspect there may be some other issue hidden in there.

As for the seller, I think he realizes whether it’s you or someone else, they’re all going to get it checked and this is going to come up. Given the fact he’s gonna buy a new RR, the $ doesn’t really seem to be an issue, and he probably just wants to get the most out of it as trade in value with an engine issue is gonna be a lot less.

One other thing to consider is that a rebuilt engine is roughly $10k (US). It might be worth trying to negotiate with the seller and just pulling the old engine (selling it) and having the Indy shop install a fresh power plant in. Oddly enough, it takes less time to lift the body off and install a new engine than it does to swap the timing chains on the front of the engine. If you can negotiate the right deal, it may be worth it. Again though, if there isn’t any metal in the filter/oil plug, you’re probably in the clear with this engine and I’m just over thinking the problem.

Just my $.02.
 

Aboshi

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The sdv6 is a total pos and if I were you I wouldn’t buy any Land Rover wit one in it. The years are 2014-2017. They are notorious for catastrophic engine failure, and there’s even a lawsuit in NJ where land rover lost and has to pay for engine replacement (partial on miles/year) just some of the issues with the SDV6:
Supercharger bushing and snout, timing chain and guides, valves, and the crem da el crem total crank failure snapping. The crank failed is so common im shocked there isn’t a recall. I have a 2011 with the 5.0 and we all know the issues by now with them, but the 3.0 sdv6 is so bad that imagine you’re driving down the highway, go to pass another vehicle and BOOM crank failure! You can easily cause an accident. All you have to do is join the Land Rover flats and fixes group on Facebook and you will see hundreds of not thousands of posts with this exact problem. I was only made aware of it after I was looking to add another LR4 to my collection. Every single one either had timing chain slap or sounded like someone threw a bag of rocks into the engine. And quite a few didn’t even turn over because the crank broke in more then one place. So my advice is run don’t walk from any 2014-2016 LR4
Also if you plan on getting one with a 5.0 make sure it’s 2012-2014 as that’s the only years covered by the class action suit in NJ, and trust me you’ll want that piece of mind.
 

Red Top Engine

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There’s a lot of engineering and moving parts associated to that engine, and I would replace them and more at this time if there’s any doubt. The timing chains tensioners are known to fail. Share the vids you mentioned.
 

Matt1t

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Man, great diagnostics work. You seem very invested into this vehicle. Unless this specific one is your dream truck, I'd keep hunting. I wish you luck and interested on what you decide.
 

Alchern

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There’s a lot of engineering and moving parts associated to that engine, and I would replace them and more at this time if there’s any doubt. The timing chains tensioners are known to fail. Share the vids you mentioned.
The videos are in the previous comments - I posted the original video, and all 5 diagnostic videos.
 

jlglr4

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The sdv6 is a total pos
I believe this is the petrol (scv6) not the diesel (sdv6). I don’t know much about the diesel (though i heard of the crank issue), but the scv6 has been a pretty solid motor aside from the coolant crossover problems (same as the 5.0). Definitely no crank issues that I’ve heard of in the scv6.
There’s a lot of engineering and moving parts associated to that engine,
Not really much different than the 5.0, right? Just has the sc sitting on top. Seems like the rest of the motor is almost identical to the 5.0 in terms of engineering. Makes it more of a pain to service, but its not really any more complicated of an engine.
 

Aboshi

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Sorry yes the petrol SCV6 as well as the TDV6 all have the crank issue, every single one of them. I’ve been in contact with a few Land Rover dealerships over the issue. The issue s comes down to the hormonic balancer, it eventually becomes out of spec sometimes as much as 6mm And it’s already under extreme torque from the tensioners as it is. Eventually it’s so far out of spec it puts a massive amount of torque as the lobes (where are already weak from being grossly thin) and coupled with a hold through the lobe area for oil makes these cranked extremely weak. They all fracture in the same exact place. Either the front or rear of the crank and if you google the images of them, you will see how they sheer off. They look as if you tore the head off a screw. Most people preemptively replace the cranks with a forged one. IMO that’s worthless, as seeing the balancer is still the issue. Pretty scary that Land Rover doesn’t want to address the issue ‍♂️
I’m not trying to bash Land Rover as I own quite a few of them and love them all. Even with their issues, but I would absolutely never ever ever eveeeeer touch their 3.0 supercharged V6. You can also look up jaguar 3.0 scv6 and you’ll find even more posts/reviews/law suits about this particular motor. Side note, if you do have crank failure just buy a new motor directly from from Land Rover (11k for the block and all parts they will need) and have them do the replacement. I’ve been quoted $18-20k from the stealerships and that’s exactly in line with the independent shops. Land Rover will also install the updated forged crank as well as making sure the entire motor is flushed out of any metal parts that may have sheered off.
 

Davidinseattle

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Sorry yes the petrol SCV6 as well as the TDV6 all have the crank issue, every single one of them. I’ve been in contact with a few Land Rover dealerships over the issue. The issue s comes down to the hormonic balancer, it eventually becomes out of spec sometimes as much as 6mm And it’s already under extreme torque from the tensioners as it is. Eventually it’s so far out of spec it puts a massive amount of torque as the lobes (where are already weak from being grossly thin) and coupled with a hold through the lobe area for oil makes these cranked extremely weak. They all fracture in the same exact place. Either the front or rear of the crank and if you google the images of them, you will see how they sheer off. They look as if you tore the head off a screw. Most people preemptively replace the cranks with a forged one. IMO that’s worthless, as seeing the balancer is still the issue. Pretty scary that Land Rover doesn’t want to address the issue ‍♂️
I’m not trying to bash Land Rover as I own quite a few of them and love them all. Even with their issues, but I would absolutely never ever ever eveeeeer touch their 3.0 supercharged V6. You can also look up jaguar 3.0 scv6 and you’ll find even more posts/reviews/law suits about this particular motor. Side note, if you do have crank failure just buy a new motor directly from from Land Rover (11k for the block and all parts they will need) and have them do the replacement. I’ve been quoted $18-20k from the stealerships and that’s exactly in line with the independent shops. Land Rover will also install the updated forged crank as well as making sure the entire motor is flushed out of any metal parts that may have sheered off.

what are you jabbering about? The SCV6 is a gas engine. The SdV6 is a diesel. Diesels have turbos, not superchargers. Funny, there are no SC owners here complaining of crankshaft failure. I think you are getting your engines confused. I can't find any class action lawsuit and settlement on broken crankshafts. I think you again may be confused referencing the settlement on timing chains which could cause lower engine damage if they break.

Please post your source for you claim that ":Sorry yes the petrol SCV6 ...all have the crank issue, every single one of them." Otherwise, bugger off.
 

jlglr4

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@Aboshi: These comments are a complete surprise to me. I’ve done a whole lot of reading on this forum and several other LR4 forums in both the US and other countries, but I’ve never seem a single report of a crank failure in the petrol engines. I’m certainly aware of the problems in the diesel variants (both Jag and LR), but not the petrols. Can you point us to some of these reports for the petrol motors? Would be good for us to know if that’s truly an issue.

I’m also not aware of any lawsuits on the 3.0 scv6 motor - just googled it and didn’t come up with anything. Can you point us to that as well? I’d like to read what that was about.

Anyone else hear about a crank problem with the petrol motors?
 

mm3846

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The crank failure is purely an issue on the diesels. It’s well documented on ROW trucks.
 

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